good morning, coast to coast cold, temperatures plunge below freezing all across the country. even in parts of florida, and it looks like the arctic air could stick around for days. lockdown -- chaos at one of the nation's busiest airports after a security breach. an entire terminal closed down. thousands of passengers rescreened. this, as tough new procedures are put into place for thousands of u.s.bound flights. and ski break -- tiger woods' wife, elin, hits the slopes in france without her husband. as for tiger, his whereabouts seem to be anyone's guess today,

as for tiger, his whereabouts seem to be anyone's guess today, monday, january 4th, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, welcome to "today" on a monday morning. blustery monday morning as you can see, i'm matt lauer. >> and i'm meredith vieira. happy new year to you. >> happy new year to you. seems like i haven't seen you for a while, but one day we were together. >> how did you spend the day? >> very quietly. w about you. >> the boys left for college, so i drove them to the airport. >> sorry about the long security lines, just wait. we'll see you next year. one thing for sure, this year is tarting off bitter cold. practically the entire country dealing with a blast of arctic air. it's been four weeks to the day since susan pauowell, a uta

mother of two vanished mysteriously. we'll be joined by a new effort to uncover clues in the case. and the so-called tiger woods' defense being used by the lawyer for the mack accused of blackmailing david letterman. in court papers, joe halderman's attorney is using a aspect of the woods' sex scandal to get his client's charges dismissed. we're going to begin with the deep freeze that's gripping much of the country. we'll get to al's forecast in just a moment. we'll start with nbc's jeff rossen, who is in new york's times square, freezing. jeff, good morning. >> reporter: a few blocks away, it feels like you sent m to siberia. in new york city, you saw it on the plaza, 20 degrees outside. with the wind chill, it feels about five or six degrees.

i was going to complain about that. but then i looked up the temperature in des moines, eye. with the wind chill there, it feels like negative 25. a lot of cities this morning are dealing with the bitterly cold like we are. other cities are dealing with the heavy snow, many are dealing with both at once. as snow piles up in the northeast -- and temperatures dip well below zero in the midwest -- you have the winter weather-lovers -- >> it's like a winter wonderland. >> and the haters. >> it's unreal. it's blizzard. >> reporter: in indiana, it's so cold -- even the street salt won't melt the ice. >> the roads are in poor condition. roads are snow-packed. slick and hazardous. >> reporter: in buffalo, new york, fans could barely see sunday's bills-colts game. near whiteout conditions on the field. and the brain-freeze in the stands. in minneapolis, firefighters

struggled when stores and homes went up in flames. the fire hydrants were iced over. in detroit, an nbc viewer took home video of this ice rescue. three teenagers were stranded when their boat got stuck in icy waters. and in new york city, the thrill of new year's eve seems like an after-thought. bundled up with wind chills in the single digits. >> this is ridiculous. this is too cold. >> you have exposed skin and you go outside, you don't have all your skin covered, you can get frostbitten in about ten minutes, this is some dangerous cold. >> reporter: dangerous for drivers, too. >> ice, a lot of cars in ditches. we missed, we missed the south. >> it's not much better there. temperatures in jacksonville, florida, dipped into the 30s overnight. shelters have opened their doors, and beds. >> i think we're hovering somewhere around 50 or 60. but they keep coming in. so it's going to be a long night. >> reporter: and a long week to come. the cold isn't going anywhere. >> it's fabulous. we love it.

>> it's beautiful! >> reporter: yeah, autiful. that's the word i was going to use. only one thing worse than the cold, and that's the strong winds blowing the cold right into your face. in fact, there was a strong winds in the northeast over the weekend. there were flight delays, two hours or more, from boston down to d.c. matt, i know you'll feel our pain on the plaza in just a little bit. >> we're feeling your pain right now. sorry about that, jeff. we appreciate it. overnight the temperatures dipped below zero in minneapolis, minnesota where we find the the weather channel's mike seidel. mike, what about the wind chill there, how is it going? >> it's cold out here, nine below zero here. the wind chill now, 22 below zero. and even though it's cold, we're more than 20 degrees above our record low this morning of about 30 below zero. international falls, talk about a bitter weekend, set records saturday and sunday, nearly 40 below. it's cold all across the country, as jeff mentioned. take you out to chicago, where they were bundled up yesterday against the chill and the wind. temperatures there stuck in the teens. it should be around freezing

this time of year in the windy city. and even down in florida, it was bitterly cold for those folks. for tampa, the high yesterday was 46. it should be 70. miami, bundled up with gloves and scarves to a high of 62 degrees. fortunately, not a lot of snow. just the lake-effect. we saw back east, and off lake michigan nearby south bend, not far from chicago, they picked up almost 18 inches of snow. a foot and a half of snow since the first of the year. it will be winding down today and tonight. another shot of arctic air is due in wednesday, thursday and friday. this one, too, will have its sights set on the eastern two-thirds of the country. a bit of a warmup, but another shot of air which will make our teeth chatter going into the latter part of the week and the weekend. back to you. >> that's the the weather channel's mike seidel. >> and al roker is back from sunny and warm pasadena, probably regretting it as he braves the cold out on the plaza. >> frost and freeze warnings

from minnesota down to florida where we've got freeze warnings there. and you can look at the temperatures. these are air temperatures. 34 in international falls, des moines, ten below. omaha, 13. factor in the winds, it feels like 25 below in des moines. five below in chicago. high temperatures will only get up into the sing the digits. chicago up to 19 and the east coast dealing with the cold air. it's not going anywhere. and down in florida, we're talking about temperatures, high temperatures right now, 28n jacksonville. 40 in fort myers. the wind chills make it feel even worse, with 36 in fort myers, key west, 56. and the bad news is, as mike seidel mentioned, this cold air is not going anywhere. the jet stream is going to continue to reinforce this for today, wednesday we get even colder air. and friday, the cold air continues to come in with the jet stream keeping it locked in in the east. meredith? >> al, thank you very much. we'll get the rest of al's

forecast ia moment. but now to last night's security breach at new jersey's busy newark international airport. that led to grounded flights, long lines and massive delays. it came just hours before tighter security measures were set to go into effect. nbc's ron allen is there for us this morning. ron, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. what a way to end the holiday travel season. terminal c here, which is headquarters for couldn't nental airlines, was shut down for some six or seven hours from about until about 12:45 in the morning yesterday. thousands of flights were canceled. thousands, dozens of flights were canceled, thousands were stranded because somehow, a man apparently here, to meet an arriving flight,ot to the other side of the airport, to the secure side of the airport. he went through a passageway or through a door, it's unclear how he got there. and it's unclear why security staff didn't stop him. so the result was that they took everybody who had cleared security, even people who were sitting on airlines and brought them back to the public side of the airport where they searched that area. with dogs, they looked at

videotape trying to identify the man. and some airport officials say they think this man probably doesn't even know what he did. they think it was apparently an innocent mistake. it wasn't a terror situation. the result today is just chaos here at the airport. long lines, some stretching out into the cold. the board says that therere only a few cancellations. most flights seem to be taking off on time. but the chaos in the terminal is just massive. it's going to take a long time for continental and the other airlines here at terminal c to work through this to get things back to normal. meredith? >> ron allen, thank you very much. for more, here's matt. >> now more on those tough new rules starting today on flights into the united states. nbc's pete williams has that part of the story for us. pete, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. more than a week after the attempted christmas-day bombing, the transportation security administration has further tightened the rules for travelers coming here from overseas. and in yemen, where the bombing plot is said to have originated,

a new threat has closed the u.s. embassy. starting today, all airlines that fly from overseas to the u.s. must insure that passengers from or traveling through countries deemed high-risk receive full-body pat-downs and have their luggage physically opened up and inspected. that list includes countries that are considered state sponsors of terrorism. or where terror groups are known to operate. the list includes nigeria, where the man accused of the bombing, umar farouk abdulmutallab, is from. and at all overseas airports, more passengers must be selected at random. including some returning americans, for similar enhanced screening. more checked luggage and carry-on bags will also be randomly swabbed, looking for traces of explosives. about 2,000 international flights arrive in the u.s. every day. and now the british government said it will move immediately to

put full-body scanners in all its international airports. able to show what's under a passenger's clothes. >> we've recognized that there are new forms of weapon that are being used by al qaeda, so we've got to respond accordingly. >> reporter: in the persian gulf country of yemen, where the bomb plot originated, the u.s. has shut down its embassy, after intelligence reports indicated that al qaeda terrorists there planned attacks in the capital city. >> both the u.s. and the british embassies have been closed to give the yemeni government an opportunity to thwart the threat and the plans that are afoot right now. >> reporter: the move comes a day after president obama said the man accused of the attempted airplane bombing prepared for the attack in yemen. >> al qaeda and the yemen pennsylvania trained him. >> reporter: just after christmas, al qaeda in yemen called for attacks on western embassy there is. u.s. officials say there's no discussion now of american military strikes against

suspected terror sites in yemen. but the obama administration is sending more money to the government there in counterterrorism aid. >> republican senator jim dement joins us now. >> happy new year to you, matt, good morning. >> one of president obama's chief counterterrorism officials said when it comes to flight 253 and the attempt to blow it up, there is no smoking gun and no single piece of evidence that should have alerted officials to the attempt. do you agree with that. >> the events of the last ten days rye remind us of how important security is at our airports. and we need to remember that it's important that our airport security guards be flexionible and able to change immediately as they are now. and that's why it's so important that we continue our vigilance. now mr. brennan said there's no

smoking gun. but there was a whole lot of smoke, matt, that for a father to come in and say his son is involved in terrorist activities, for passengers to buy a ticket with cash and no checked luggage and international flights, i think the president has agreed that there were a lot of signals here that we should have closed up on. maybe not one smoking gun, but a whole lot of smoke. >> does someone lose his or her job over this, senator? is there someone who was so lax in responsibility that that person is out? >> i think it's a mistake to look for one person. right now, matt. the system failed is the president said. the whole reason for the homeland security agency is to make sure that the different agencies speak to each other. that apparently is not happening. the 9/11 bill that we passed in congress that was supposed to help fix this, missed the most important point. to force these agencies to talk to each other. so we need to go back to basics here. get the politics out of this. and focus on the security of our

country. >> you hear a lot of people now criticizing the president, saying he's taken his eye off the ball with his focus on health care and with the economy, two things that are obviously important to him. is there some reality to that, do you think? or is that political grandstanding? people trying to score points with an attempted terror attack? >> again, i don't think we should try to blame whether it's the president or any other person right now. but a lot of us have been concerned over the last year, that the president did seem to downplay the threat of terror. he doesn't use the word any more. he hesitates to say that there's a war on terror. but in the last few days, he seems to have come around to the idea that there are people in yemen and other places who are intent on hurting americans and i think that puts us all on the same page. and hopefully we can take the politics out of this. focus on security. and the president seems to be in the right place now. >> you say we're all on the same page. are you the single hold-out,

senator, in approving the president's choice for the director of the tsa, errol souters. are you going to hold out on that nomination, or are you going going to come around? >> well unfortunately the president took eight months to even nominate someone for that position. and what i've asked for, matt, is just some debate and a recorded vote. they want to pass mr. southers in secret, without a recorded vote. i think there's some significant issues. i've asked him if he's going to change the policy of collective bargaining within the tsa and he will not give me a straight answer. secretary napolitano said she intends to submit our airport security to collective bargaining. this is all about politics, and not security. what i want is a few hours of debate on mr. southers, to help focus the nation back on security. and get this politics, particularly union politics out of our security apparatus.

>> senator jim demint, thanks for your time this morning, i appreciate it. >> thank you. let's get a check of the rest of the morning's top stories, ann curry back at the news desk, back to you. >> happy new year to you, meredith and matt and to you. in news, the christmas terror scare is on president obama's agenda as he heads back to the white house this morning from his vacation in hawaii. we've got nbc's chief white house correspondent, chuck todd, joining us from honolulu. the president is actually facing a number ever big issues this week. >> reporter: he sure is, ann. when he left he delayed his start of his vacation by a day, because he with a trying to get health care through the senate. well now he left a little bit eay on his way back to washington. he should get there by lunchtime today. because of all the things on his plate, including that terror agenda, tomorrow he's got the big meeting with his security and intelligence teams. i'm told no heads going to roll. there isn't going to be a single person held accountable for now. though when congress weighs in and has congressional hearings, how certain people do at those

congressional hearings. whether it's dennis blair, director of national intelligence, janet napolitano or michael lighter, head of the national terrorism center. how they perform could dictate how long they're in their job. this week we'll hear from health care and by friday, new unemployment numbers. so a busy year already kicks off for the president. >> nbc's chuck todd, safe travel home. the military says four u.s. troops were killed on sunday by a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan, the first u.s. combat deaths in afghanistan this year. in china, a highway overpass under construction collapsed on sunday, seven died, 30 others hurt. some critically. rescue workers are looking for possible victims. there was a scare on sunday, for passengers on an air berlin plane from germany to the canary islands. the plane skidded off a runway after the pilot aborted takeoff. there were no reports of injuries. in finland, a passenger train apparently lost its brakes and slammed into the lobby of a hotel in helsinki.

despite the damage, no one was seriously injured. overseas markets are starting offer the first trading day in the new year mostly higher. cnbc's melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange. melissa, also higher today -- oil. >> that's right, ann. oil hitting a two-month high, zipping past $80 a barrel. russia, the world's largest oil and gas producers has halted supplies to belarus, there was that out of china showing that manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in five years. underscoring the need for energy and oil. keep in mind that today's gains, so far early in the new year are on top of the 78% gain in oil in 2009. >> thanks so much. and "avatar" held onto the top spot at the weekend box office and made a milestone. it became the fifth movie er to pass the $1 billion mark worldwide. and director james cameron becomes the only film maker to direct top movies that have

topped $1 billion, the other "titani "titanic." let's go back to you three. >> our director, joe michaels have seen it three times. but he's got a lot of other issues. >> he fell asleep in the theater. >> just looking for a little peace and quiet. let's take a look at see what's happening around the rest of the country. you know about all the cold air. we've got lake-effect snow to talk about. this isn't going anywhere any time soon. the snow will be piling up throughout the eastern great lakes, from south bend, traverse city into syracuse. we're talking about three to six inches, but there could be as much as nine to 12 inches in some spots. look for sunshine through the gulf coast, sunny good morning, we'll have sun rise in about eight minutes and a partly cloudy, into the low and mid 20s now. winds have diminishes since

yesterday. back to work and school, dress accordingly. a few clouds racing through, highs only near freezing, still blustery and cold into tomorrow. a little light snow thursday and friday. meredith? >> al, thank you. still no sighting of tiger woods since his now-infamous accident and the sex scandal that followed. by his wife, elin has turned up in europe. >> reporter: the scandal-hungry british tabloid newspapers are feasting on the tiger woods' story. his estranged wife, elin nordegren spotted by the paparazzi on ski slopes in the french alps. reportedly staying at an $8,000 a night chalet under heavy security. >> it does look like that elin is moving on. the fact is, she's not just sitting at home, crying, she's out with people who love her,

she loves and she's spending time there. >> it's a vacation that nordegren can easily afford, especially if the stories about her demanding a $300 million divorce payout from woods are true. >> by all accounts, it looks like this couple is not going to go the distance. we're hearing more and more frequently rumors that elin is actually looking to plan a new life without her husband. >> reporter: woods, meanwhile, hasn't been seen lately. the blogosphere is blazing with rumors that he's eastern in arizona in treatment for section addiction, in florida, or off somewhere with one of his mistresses. >> right now he's keeping a low profile and no one really knows where he is. >> reporter: and no word on when tiger woods will return to the pro golf circuit, his critics saying while he may rack up more major victories in the future. his mystique as a superstar player is gone now. while barring a reconciliation, his wife, elin, may wind up as a

very wealthy divorcee. just ahead, latest on the bizarre connection being made between the tiger woods scandal and the alleged blackmail attempt on david letterman, but first,

just ahead, the man suspected of murdering his own twin sisters, aunt and 6-year-old cousin on thanksgiving day, arrested thanks to a couple watching "america's most wanted."

time now is 7:26 on this january 4, 2010. in the news this morning, jim zorn has coached his last game with the redskins. a team source tells us he has been fired as the team's head coach less than a day after the skins finished a disappointin season. washington was 4 and 12 this season. he was the sixth red skins head coach under dan snyder who bought the team in 1999.

good morning, we have a blazing orange and somber lavender sun rise junds way. it's frigid from the low to mid 20s right now. high today only near freezing with a blustery wind, maybeear freezing this afternoon and early this evening. partly cloudy, blustery and cold tomorrow and wednesday. then maybe a little light snow on thursday and friday. >> 395 is jammed from an accident on the eastbound flee way down at the exit for the northbound third street tunnel. 270 packed in very, very

tightly. the early morning accidents at the 270 southbound split is jammed. germantown solid all the way out of town.

7:0 on this monday morning, january 4th, 2010, you're looking at new york's times square, where it is right around 20 degrees. meanwhile, here in rockefeller plaza, the tree is still shining brightly. if you haven't seen it, you only have a few days left. because it comes down this thursday. >> don't>> don't smile so broad. >> i'm meredith vieira, alongside matt lauer. have you taken your tree down? >> yes, took it down last week. poof, gone. >> new year, fresh start. >> always. just ahead, the unusual

connection the attorney for the man accused of trying to extort david letterman is trying to make to the tiger woods' sex scandal. we'll talk exclusively to lawyers for both letterman and his alleged blackmailer in just a couple of minutes. also ahead, four weeks ago today, utah mother, susan powell was reported missing, just ahead, the latest on the search and talk exclusively to powell's best friend about an effort now getting under way. on a much, much lighter note -- how did she do? we'll catch up with the illinois woman who spent an entire year following oprah winfrey's every piece of advice. t we're going to begin this half hour with the end of a month-long hunt for a man accused of killing four people at thanksgiving dinner in florida. in a moment we'll talk exclusively to the parents of the youngest victim. but first, nbc's kerry sanders has details. >> reporter: caught -- fugitive paul merhige. accused of the thanksgiving-day slaughter of four family members. the 35-year-old was holed up in a florida keys' motel.

he had stockpiled his own food, cleaned his own motel room. covered his car. checked in, under a false name. >> somebody knows where ts guy is. >> reporter: but saturday, when the tv show, "america's most wanted" promoed its broadcast on the murders and the elusive miami suspect -- >> there is a $100,000 reward that youl be guaranteed to get if you do the right thing. make that call. >> reporter: an alert motel owner realized the guest in a room on the second floor was merhige. >> my daughter you know, was ght next to him. in an apartment right next to him and that made me feel like, oh, my god, i got a serial killer next to my daughter. >> so while i was watching "america's most wanted" i knew that paul was watching "america's most wanted." but i knew something that he didn't. i knew that his hotel room was being surrounded. and the irony was pretty sweet. >> reporter: jim's daughter, 6-year-old makayla was murdered thanksgiving day as she slept in her bed.

merhige is also accused of killing his aunt and twin sisters. >> this is for the thanksgiving tragedy in jupiter. where he killed the four people. >> reporter: the community worked to get the word out, even passing out flyers. but it was a security video broadcast on the tv promo that led to the call to "america's most wanted" tipline. the sitton family feared that he might return and kill what he had started. the with merhige in custody, the griff-stricken family can at least give up that worry. and for "america's most wanted" and john walsh, this arrest now brings 1,099 fugitives brought to justice. for "today," kerry sanders, nbc news, jupiter. florida. >> jim and muriel sitton are t parents of 6-year-old victim, makayla. john walsh is the host of "america's most wanted."

good morning to you all. jim, if i could start with you, it took 38 days, but the man who killed your little girl is finally behind bars. how would you describe how you are feeling right now? >> well i was very relieved when he was caught and captured. because we've had 24-hour, seven day a week protection of our house. afraid that paul would be coming back to our home to finish what he had started on thanksgiving night. and i felt my wife and her father were in danger. and so we were very relieved that he was found. our daughter's bedroom is still empty. so we're not jumping up and down wi with jubilation, but at least we're not having to look over our shoulders every second. >> muriel i know you and your family have had time to reflect on what happened. you hadn't seen your cousin in quite a while. your husband hadn't seen him for ten years prior to him coming to

your home on thanksgiving. do you have any clearer sense in your own mind, why he would do something like this? >> no. i would have no idea why such he would commit such a horrible, horrific, horrific act. and walk into my daughter's room and brutally kill her. it's anndescribable pain to lose a child. but it's, it's even more indescribable to have lost your child in the executed in her bedroom. and i'm still haunted with the idea of was she asleep? was she not asleep? what did she hear, what did she see. so i have no idea what, what would, what kind of evil would be in such a person, such a monster that would do such a thing. and take the lives of three other people as well. >> john, if i can bring you in. i know the case became very personal for you. why did you want to feature this particular story?

>> well, meredith, i've walked in their shoes and my wife and i were talking about the horrible pain that they must have been going through. and when this coward wasn't caught after weeks, i decided to change the way we were doing it on "america's most wanted." we had put little clips on. and i had watched jim and muriel on television, their quiet digni dignity, their grace, we need justice, we fear for our lives, we fear this guy will try to come back and do the rest of the family, murder of the rest of the family. so we decided to go to florida. i wanted to meet jim and i wanted to meet muriel. i thought if we put the white-hot spotlight on this case. and ifeople saw their pain, that they would do the right thing. and saturday night, the right thing happened. those people in the keys, t motel owners made the call. and i was watching the show and i got to talk to jim. and i had been praying that

somehow we could end this case and get justice for little makayla. my son, adam, was six years old when he was murdered. my wife and i prayed for the sittons and i talked to jim saturday night and said, this part of the painful journey is over and please give my best to muriel. these are gracious, good, good people that needed closure to this case. >> jim, i know you wanted to say something directly to john, i wanted to afford you that opportunity now. >> yes. i just wanted to say, john, i admire and respect what you're doing and i thank you so much for putting that monster's face nationwide, international. and without "america's most wanted" he may sll be on the loose. and i just thank you so much. i admire that you took your tragedy and turned it into something really good and i hope to be able to do the same thing. >> jim, before i let you go. i'm sure this arrest comes as a great relief to you. if there is a trial, then the

nightmare will be reopened. are you prepared to face paul merhige? do you want to look him in the eye again? >> i was hoping that when he, i was hoping he would have been killed at capture. now he's allowed to torment and torture our family you know, for years to come. and you know, i'm not seeking vengeance in this case. but i do want justice. and i do know that either here on earth or in eternity, paul will get justice. and that's all we're seeking. how would i feel to face him? i'll gladly look into his eye. i know he feels nothing. he has no remorse. he's like an animal. but i do want to stand in front of him and just show him that i'm not backing down. and i'm not afraid of him.

>> jim and muriel sitton, thank you r joining us this morning. our condolences and john walsh, always a pleasure to see you. thank you, both. now let's get a check of the weather from al. as we take a look at see what's going on for the week ahead, well as we've been telling you, below-normal temperatures forren of the middle of the country. mid-week, light snow from the gulf coast. wet in the pacific northwest and the latter part of the week, we've got the cold air back in again for the eastern half of the u.s. good morning, partly to mostly cloudy now, temperatures in just the low and mid 20s and we still have the winds gusting to around 20 to 25 miles an hour, and the windchills are down to near 10 degrees. you'll need your warmest winter gear on the way to work and school.

highs near freezing otherwise just a few clouds racing through. it's going to stay blugsery and cold tuesday and wednesday, maybe a little light snow thursday that may linger into friday. don't forget, any time you need to check your weather, you can go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. meredith? al, thank you. up next, the lawyer for david letterman's accused blackmailer, using the so-called tiger woods' defense. could it work? we'll talk to the attorneys on both sides, after this.

we're back at 7:42 with a new legal twist in the david letterman saga. it involves the tiger woods' sex scandal. nbc's peter alexander is here with details on this. peter, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, happy new year to you. it's been called the tiger woods defense. in recently-filed court papers, the lawyer for david letterman's accused extortionist is invokin the tiger woods scandal. claimi if it's not a crime for tiger woods' mistresses to seek payoffs -- two iconings, to unforgotable sex scandals that dominated the tabloids for months. >> i have, had sex with women who worked for me on this show. >> reporter: david letterman became a punchline first, making his stunning admission in october, after suspended cbs news producer, joe halderman, allegedly tried to extort $2 million from the comedian for

keeping quiet about his romantic affairs. weeks later, tiger's turn, acknowledging his own infidelity as a sealingly never-ending parade of women marched through the headlines. but is that where the similarities between the two scandals end? in these recently-released court papers, halderman's lawyer took another swing at getting his client's case dismissed, citing numerous news reports that claimed tiger woods paid alleged mistress, rachel uchitel as much as $5 for her silence. but halderman's lawyer points out that prosecutors didn't file charges against uchitel or any charges against her lawyer. why not? according to halderman's lawyer, because their behavior was capitalist, not crimin. he adds, the reality is that evidence of celebrity misdeeds has a significant fair market value. saying his client's offer was just a business transaction. and that no crime was committed here.

letterman's lawyer fired back, telling nbc news, this was not a sale of anything legitimate. this was classic extortion. legal experts say halderman's strategy sounds like a stretch. >> it's almost not a legal argument, it's almost a water cooler argument. it's like getting a loan if a bank to holding up a bank and saying, hey, in both cases, we ended up with the money. >> reporter: investigative reporter, jarmd posner agrees, his reporting is cited several times in the new halderman court filing. >> they're trying to fit it into the tiger woods analogy, even though it doesn't. in the hope that it will confuse the public, confuse the jury pool a little bit. and maybe make people more sympathetic to him. >> reporter: we could find out soon if the strategy works, joe halderman is due back in a new york state supreme court, matt, january 19th. >> peter, thank you very much. we're joined now exclusively by joe halderman's attorney, jerry shargel and daniel horowitz who represents david letterman. good mning to both of you.

i'll be honest with you, some people say this is apples and oranges you're trying to compare. other people are more open-minded about this. saying wait a second, he has pointed out what seem to be legal contradictions. but legal contradictions aside, is there any legal ground or are there any legal grounds for dismissing this case bed on the tiger woods' story? >> tiger woods story is not the tiger woods' defense. that's the reaction principally of the tabloids. the tiger woods story is a an analogy. that was filed in a legal brief contained in aegal brief, in support of our legal argument. lawyers do that all the time. and analogies are used all the time. and i think the analogy is useful to show as i've argued from the beginning, that commeral transactions take place like this. in law offices throughout the country. >> here's my take on this. if you're saying, look, here are these ladies, who allegedly had affairs with tiger woods, and who allegedly, because we don't know, allegedly received some

money not to talk about those affairs, my take is this, in some ways might a judge read this and say, yeah, you're right, a pox on all their houses had they're all guilty of some extortion, let's get back to the trial at hand here. >> i don't think so. because not every threat is tantamount to extortion. the second-highest court in the country has said that. not every threat to reveal someone's secrets is extortion. and our opinion is that this wasn't extortion with joe halderman. >> so you don't think by filing this motion and making this comparis you've admitted guilt on the part of joe halderman in this case? >> absolutely not. because joe halderman in my view, is not guilty of any offense. >> let my bring mr. horowitz in. dan, what was your initial response when you heard this motion to dismiss? >> our response is that this is just an attempt to once again, shift focus away from some very

difficult facts for mr. halderman. facts that clearly indicate that the only thing that was on his mind was to blackmail david letterman. you cannot get away with analogies and theories here, when you look at all the facts and circumstances. that mr. halderman is accused of standing outside mr. letterman's apartment at 6:00 in the morning, delivering a blackmail package that threatened him personally and professionally. demanding a big chunk of money. and then in tape-recorded conversations, demanding $2 million for silence. that's classic blackmail, no matter how many analogies you want to make to tabloid stories. that fnkly have nothing to do with this case. >> i imagine you're feeling is that the judge in this case is going to take no time and knock this rht out? >> that's absolutely right. i don't think this is persuasive to the judge at all. the judge is going to look at the facts and the law. the facts in this case. the facts against mr. halderman. not the facts in some

professional golfer's life. >> you cite, jerry, gloria alred and her client, rachel uchitel and perhaps gloria allred is perhaps guilty of some crime. >> i say the opposite, she's not guilty of any crime. >> if they do this, it's no better than what your client has done. >> i don't say thi at all. i say she's kbhited no crime. that it's capitalist, not criminal. that she was permitted 20 do this. that's my point all along. there are two things i want to say. one is isn't it curious, that david letterman has engaged a lawyer to go out and front of the district attorney's office in making these arguments? i wonder whether they have confidence in the new york county district attorney's office. quite unusual. that's one. number two, i would like to put this, get to the core of this allegation. the implicit message, david letterman has admitted to the affair. the implicit message in a situation like this, is letterman saying, not explicitly, he's never met

halderman. is david tterman saying, you better not say anything. you better keep this confidential. you better keep this quiet. that's the message. don't go out there with this story. halderman said, wrong. i am going to go out there with this story. i've been hurt, i've been destroyed. my relationship with a woman that i loved has been, has been totally, totally destroyed. i'm going to go out there. i'm going to go out there with a book, a screenplay, a treatment, whatever form i choose. but if you, david letterman, want this to remain confidential, i am willing to enter into a contract with you. >> capitalism, not criminality. >> go ahead, mr. horowitz. >> i would say what jerry has just done is stood the facts directly on their head. it was not mr. letterman that approached mr. halderman. it was mr. halderman who threatened dave and his family and said, for a price, i will remain silent that is classic blackmail. this is not the sale of some commercial screelay treatment. again, if you look at all of the

facts here that standing outside the apartment, i can run through the litany again. it all adds up to blackmail, matt. >> let me end with jerry. there were reports in the papers last week that there was some plea deal at least being attempted here, a year in prison perhaps for a guilty plea on the part of your client. can you confirm or deny that? >> i'll deny it, because the district attorney's office denies planting that story. it certainly didn't come from me. it does not describe any plea negotiation that i was involved in. >> thank you both. and we'll be following this story closely. >> thank you, matt. we're back right after this.

just ahead, one month after she disappeared, where is missing utah mother, susan powell? >> her best friend speaks out in an exclusive interview, after your local news and weather.

st opstop

7:55 is your time now,4 degrees, a blustery, frigid morning. we'll have your forecast after the news. good morning. it is monday january 4, 2010. in the news this morning, it comes as no surprise to redskins fans, jim zorn was fired after the loss on sunday. if you're driving through prince george's county, watch your speed, 50 speed scam ares are u near school zones, drivers who get caught can expect a $40 tick

good morning, c cold arctic air continues to move over the region and some gust northwest winds. low and mid 20s around the region. the windchills are just near 10 degrees. the peak wind gusts are around 20 to 25 miles an hour. highs only reaching near freezing. still a bit blustery tonight and into wednesday, high into the mid 30s on tuesday and wednesday. then on thursday, a few light snow showers later in the day and prance lingering into part of friday, then the weekend to follow looks frigid again. partly cloudy saturday and sunday, with morning lows near 20 a afternoon highs near 30. this morning you really need to

layer up with these temperatures only in the low to mid 20s. that's the way it looks this morning with our weather, now let's check on the traffic. >> a live look through southeast washington, pennsylvania avenue jammed from at least branch avenue up to the souza bridge. now if you're headed for downtown along 395, that's jammed, from an early problem on the eastbound freeway, that's just cleared so hopefully things get a little bit better headed across the 14th street bridge. >> we'll have more news, weather

8 :00 now on a monday morning, it's the fourth day of january, 2010, or 2010, whichever you prefer. i'll tell you what, these people probably would prefer that it's a little warmer here in the northeast. we've got frigid temperatures of 20 degrees. we've got wind, which makes it feel like it's in the single digits. and al roker, if you were watching the show the show earl not warm enough any time soon. >> nope. >> that's all right. it's winter, right? >> you need a hat, young lady. >> i know i do, i wasn't thinking.

i've got the scarf, i need the hat. >> and you've got a cold, too. you need to be careful. >> thank you. what a gentlema >> 0 out on the plaza, i'm matt laue along with meredith vieira and al roker. it's been a month sin a utah mother, susan powell disappeared without a trace. police have had no major leads in the case in the last couple of weeks. now her best friend is speaking out. with us this morning, she's launching a media blitz to try to make sure that susan powell's name and face will not leave the headlines. we're going to talk to her in just a couple of minutes. on a much lighter note, you'll meet the woman who spent a year living her life according to the advice that oprah winfrey doled out. everything from her wardrobe to her relationships to her diet. we're going to ask her what she learned and if she would do it again. she wrote this book, she actually was on the "today show" in october. >> i remember. >> of last year. she writes that she's getting her makeup put on. she says, i want to feel pretty when i sit across from dreamy

matt lauer. she goes on to say -- >> al says the same thing every morning. >> she goes on to say, just as i feel i've gotten warmed up, matt is hilarious, welcoming and fun to talk to. >> this should be a bestseller, i recommend it to everyone. go out and buy this. >> his ego is nowhis big. >> how much is this? >> not enough. >> whatever it is, it's a bargain. >> she's dating stedman graham right no unbelievable. and just 39 days to go until the opening, 39 days until the opening of the vancouver olympics, we're so excited. apollo ohno, could become the most decorated winter athlete, ever and we'll be chatting with him in just a bit. >> let's go inside, ann standing by at the news desk with all the headlines, take it away. >> good morning, once again, everybody. in the news this morning, starting today, passengers flying to the u.s. face strict new security measures. all passengers will now have to deal with increased random searches and the government says that all travelers from

pakistan, nigeria, yemen and other countries considered high risk for terrorism from now on will be patted down. the enhanced security was triggered by the attempted christmas-day bombing of a detroitbound jet, allegedly by a nigerian man trained by al qaeda in yemen. security officials meantime in yemen say government forces killed two al qaeda militants today outside the country's capital. the clashes came as the u.s., great britain and france closed their embassies for a second day, because of the terror concerns. president obama returned to washington today, having spent much of his hawaiian vacation dealing with the national security developments. he meets tomorrow with intelligence and security officials to assess the latest threats. a security breach grounded planes for six hours sunday night at newark arth in new jersey. officials say aan walked through an exit into the secure side of the terminal. passengers had to be rescreened while police searched for the man, who was not found. the first week of the new year is also off to a brutally cold start from the midwest to

the east coast. temperatures fell to well below freezing along with heavynow in some areas. international falls, minnesota hit 35 below zero ts morning. with a record 37 below on sunday. the frigid weather reached all the way to florida, where farmers sprayed fruit crops to insulate them with a protective layer of ice. firefighters in michigan used an airboat sunday to rescue three teenaged duck hunters. the team's own boat got jammed with ice. and with temperatures hovering anywhe zero, they decided to sit tight until help arrived. and the new tallest building in the world opens for business today, at more than half a mile high, with more than 160 floors, the burge dubai is more than twice as high as the empire state building. priced at $1.5 billion. it is now 8:04, let's get another check of the weather from al. >> you know what i just got, a nice hat from the census people.

all right. that's all right. and she's got a nice necessarily crunch hat. we're talking winter olympics, but summer olympian, shawn johnson is here. >> i'm here to give you the necessarily crunch bar, seven pounds, and signed by apollo anton ohno and you. it would be great if we could melt this down and have some hot chocolate. well thank you, i'm not even going to eat this, because it's so cool having your signature on it. shawn, thanks so much. what have you been doing? >> nothing much, getting back into the gym, training a little bit and having fun. but i have a challenge to go to him, see what's frigid morning, back to work and school. good morning. right now 25 degrees in washington, we're just in the low to mid 20s elsewhere, all around the region, winds still gusting 20 to 25 miles an hour

so the windchills are in the lower teens. we'll have blustery winds throughout the day, but not as bad as the weekend. highs just near freezing. blustery and cold again this weekend. that's your latest weather. meredith. al, thank you very much. up next, we'll talk to the best friend of utah mother, susan powell, exactly a month after her mysterious disappearance, right after this.

we're back now at 8:10, utah mother, susan powell, disappeared exactly four weeks ago today. police consider her husband, josh powell, a person of interest in that case. and so far, there have been no signs of susan. we'l talk to her best friend in a moment. but first, nbc's miguel almaguer has more. >> reporter: for nearl the last

decade, the powells have called west valley city home. and now friends who know the couple well say josh powell plans to move his family permanently to washington state, where he is from in the coming days. in the meantime, several detectives continue to work this case extremely hard. the search for susan powell continues. the vibrant young missing mother of two, who disappeared nearly a month ago. but as the police investigation moves forward, detectives are no closer to finding the 28-year-old than the day she vanished. there are leads, but her trail has gone cold. and privately, my question if she'll ever be found alive. still, charles cox believes his daughter will return home safe. >> i absolutely hold out hope she's alive. i realize there are two thoughts to that and two possibilities. and as her father, i have no choice, i must maintain the hope that she's alive. >> reporter: police have no suspects i her disappearance, but have named susan's husband,

josh powell, a person of interest. investigators never could verify that he went camping in this remoterea the day susan was reported missing. detectives say josh powell isn't cooperating with their effort to find susan. >> we want them to post it on their facebook pages. >> reporter: but despite the odds, the search for susan is going viral. today on facebook, twitter and youtube, pictures and video of susan's story are part of the 72-hour web blitz to bring attention to the case. >> we hope that people will familiarize themselves with susan's face. get to know what she looks like. read her description. and then look around. do you see her? >> reporter: although weeks have passed, susan's disappearance is still the focus at dinner tables and with church groups across the salt lake city area. these ribbons will be circulated in her community. a visual reminder that susan is still out there. >> we are trying in any way we can think, to keep the story alive and keep susan's memory alive.

>> reporter: a mom still missing and a search that isn't over. susan powell's father says he was able to see his two grandchildren on christmas day. he says he was not able to talk to his son-in-law. something police here at headquarters still want to do. matt? >> miguel almaguer, thank you very much. kiirsi hellewell is susan powell's very close friend. kiirsi, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. >> it's been a month now, police say there are no major leads, they still say josh is a person of interest in this case. in your heart you still hold out hope that susan can be found alive? >> i really do. i really hope so. we can't let ourselves let go of that. >> i know you're worried that susan's name and her face will fall from the headlines because a lot of other stories break. and americans kind of move off in other directions. and that's part of this campaign, this media blitz today. tell me a little bit more about it. >> we're asking everybody to send an email to five friends and ask them to forward it to

five of their friends, so that the emails can spread all across the country. we're also asking people to spread it on twitter, on facebook, on youtube, on their blogs, podcasts, everything, every way possible. >> every effort is an important effort. i have to ask the question, why didn't someone do this four weeks ago or three weeks ago? you know, this effort -- i just hope that something like this doesn't come too late. >> i hope not, too. it's taken a lot of planning and as far as i know, i don't think anybody has ever used social media like this before to find a missing person. so we're kind of breaking new ground and trying to figure it out as we go alongs. >> as someone who has spent an awful lot of time with susan and her family, i just would like your reaction to this idea that josh has taken his two, their two sons, ages two and four, to another location, where they're spending time away from the headlines. and i guess away from investigators as well. does his behavior in the wake of her disappearance, shock you? does it surprise you? does it worry you?

>> i think all of the above. i don't think anybody can understand why a husband would do this, would act this way. it's very confusing and it's hard to know what to think. >> susan's father said he had a chance to spend time with his grandchildren over the holidays. have you found out how those kids are doing? >> he says that they seem fairly happy. they seem fairly okay. they miss their mom. they don't know why she's gone, but they're doing okay. >> what would you like people to do? in addition to the media blitz, what would you like people to do? >> i would like them to download flyers, take them around where they live, keep their eyes open and be familiar with susan's face and her story. so if they see anything or remember something unusual, maybe they saw a couple of weeks ago, they can call the police and we can find her. >> we hope that can be accomplished. kiirsi hellewell, thank you very much for your time this morning. thank you. >> if you have any information on the whereabouts of susan powell, please contact the west

valley police department in utah at 801-840-4000. and we will be right back. a pilot. and this is the chevy traverse. it has more cargo space than pilot. including the most space behind the third row. and traverse beats honda on highway gas mileage too. more fuel efficient and 30% more room. maybe traverse can carry that stuff too. the chevy traverse. america's best crossover. compare us to anyone and may the best car win. it all starts with havinglocks more hotels to choose from.. that's why i book with expedia. so i can find someplace familiar... or somewhere more distinctive... nice! then i can compare dates to find out when i can save the

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pay bills onne, keep your budget on track this year with online bill pay. from bank of america. ♪ talk show queen, oprah winfrey, routinely tops the list of the rich and poufwerful. most americans have probably followed one piece of her advice. but one yoga instructor from chicago went a lot further than that. nbc's kevin tibbles has her story. >> reporter: when we first met robin okrant in 2008, she was 100%, 24/7, over the top, oprah. >> we're live in chicago, this is a momentous show. >> reporter: it was all part of a one-year social experiment during which the 37-year-old chicagoan vowed to follow every single bit of advice oprah doled

out. >> every moment of my day can be filled up with these oprah assignments. so it's, it's actually really stressful. it's stressful and a little exhausting. >> reporter: robin bought everything oprah recommended. from vitamins to wardrobe essentials. >> the most mortifying thing to me are my leopard-print flats, which every woman is supposed to have in her closet. says oprah. and maybe i should have left them in my closet. >> reporter: robin even bought the backyard firepit oprah suggested, despite the fact she doesn't have a back yard. but it makes a great bed for her adopted cat named selma, another oprah-inspired tradition. >> i look at her furry face and thank oprah for her. >> reporter: robin's husband said the year was stressful, but it's taught them to communicate

better. >> i feel morrow mantic than what i know about stedman. >> reporter: living the life of oprah and apparently loving it. >> robin has written a book about her experience, "living oprah: my one-year experiment to walk the walk of the queen of talk." robin, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> when you started the experiment in january of 2008, you say, look, i'm not one of these crazed oprah fans. so what was the point? >> i think the point is that women are inundate with the information about how we're supposed to be happy, how we're supposed to look, to outsiders and i think we buy into so much of it. you know and the magazine stands, on television. so i wanted to sew what would happen if one of us actually put all of this information to the test. and so i chose oprah, who has a lot of advice for women. >> certainly more than most people. she sort of is the one. you spent more than 1200 hours, $4700 doing pretty much everything that oprah preached on her show, her website and in

her magazine. best part of the experiment for you? maybe it's your cat? >> yes, my cat, i love selma. and i actually think one of the best parts was the hands-on philanthropy. i had my own book drive and gave books to women in prison and that meant a lot to me. >> and the worst part? >> putting my marriage through the wringer, even our sex life was redesigned by rah. >> really? >> yes. >> is it better as a result? >> it was, let's see. it got a little boring, to be honest. i'm sorry, jim. it got a little boring. but now there's more flash to it, that's for sure. >> now that you're not living oprah. >> towards the end of the experiment you write in your book, everyone keeps reminding me that i should be having fun with this. and those words are like fingernails on a chalkboard. i'm not sure how they expect this year to be a big party. i barely see my friends, i'm bleeding money. i'm always busy, busy. i've allowed so many tv experts to poke into my marriage. there's a lot of mending to do.

in the end, was it a successful experiment for you? >> i think i came to a lot of self-realizations that i didn't have before. i actually didn't even realize that i was susceptible to all of this advice. so i really, i didn't know that i was addicted, i guess to these, you know, how to get flat abs in four weeks on the covers of magazines and how to live your best life. i'm so attracted to those words. so i think i learned a lot of work i have to do on myself. and so yeah, i'm really, really grateful for the year. >> you also talk in the book about how so many discussions and the revelations on oprah weren't really new. it was more about the packaging. you talk about her fans, their adulation of her. and did you learn something aboute in general? >> i think one of the best things about oprah is that her audience looks at her like she's their bff, you know. so she's not, it doesn't feel like she's preaching. it feels like she's sharing. but i do think, it felt as if we were this pack of high schoolers

that was looking to the popular girl for advice, we could all be part of this clique. >> do you even watch this show any more? >> i don't. i watch the big ones, you know, i watch if she has sarah palin or whitney houston on, i'll watch it but oth than that, i have quieter mornings now. >> how do you feel about her leaving her show? >> i have mixed feelings. i'm sad for chicago, i'm a chicagoan and she's an institution there. but i think she's proving a great example for those of us who are in a rut and people-pleasers and who you know, clearly her fans just want her to stay. but she's going out on top. and so i admire her choice, quite a bit. but i'll miss her. >> have you approached her -- you have a book, hello. >> no, i haven't approached her. so hopefully you know, who knows. maybe it's sitting on her bedside table right now under her cup of tea. >> well we generally hope. is this year about living robyn, i hope? >> exactly. my whole year, i'm taking my power back.

>> thank you so much. oprah, here's the book. back after your local news and weather. our time right now is 8:26, 24 degrees and some sunshine out there this morning, but it is very cold. good morning to you, in the news for today, the redskins have officially announced that jim zorn than fired. bruce allen making the announcement, the general manager said the status quo was just unacceptable. this happened after the team ended it's 4 and 12 season with a loss in san diego. zorn was the sixth redskins head coach under dan snyder who bought the team back in 1999.

no word yet on a replacement but an announcement of some sort is expected sometime today.

good morning, those frigid northwest winds have diminished a bit, temperatures in the low and mid 20s, windchills near 10 degrees and the winds will be with us from time to time throughout the day with highs near freezing. >> a live look at the belt way, there had been an accident on the outer loop near georgia avenue. delays will begin black at the

i-95 interchange. >> thank you, jerry, we'll have more, news, weather and traffic in just about 25 minutes, now

8:30 on this monday morning, the 4th of january, 2010. a bone-chilling start to the day. here in rockefeller plaza, and our crowd is bundled up tight. as they struggle to get above freezing tempts today. meanwhile, the whole gang is back together finally, and in just 39 days, we'll be having

the make olympics where today's high is 44 degrees in vancouver. >> not bad. >> nice earmuffs, hon. >> thank you so much. >> you're adding something each time. your voice is getting a little worse. got to take care of that. coming up, by the way, one of the most popular olympic faces around here. speed skater, apollo anton ohno, he has the chance to become the most olympic decorated athlete in history. >> it's so exciting to see how he's doing. and we'll be talking to jean chatzky. checking in with her advice. she's part of our money 911 panel. we'll be checking to see whether or not the advice is paying off for our viewers. but first, the u.s. census bureau is kicking off its portrait of america road tour. and here to tell us about it is u.s. secretary ever commerce,

gary glock and u.s. census director, dr. gary gross. over the next four months, your census workers are going to be going out in vehicles like these, and what's the goal of the trip? >> the goal of the trip is to let people know that the census is coming. we need everybody to when they receive their forms, to fill it out, only ten questions, less than ten minutes. and mail it back in. because with that census form. will determine the allocation of some almost $400 billion of federal funds every year. that go out to cities, counties and states, based on the population. and in the tough economic times, when governments are cutting back, this is valuable money for schools, education, human services, for transportation. and the census is used to determine how many members of the house of representatives each state will get. some states could gain few seats, some states might lose, so it's very important that everybody be fully counted. >> you've done a really good job of answering the next questions. a lot of people hear -- census,

and follow it with, yawn, all right? this is vitally important to people all across the country? >> it is very important. it's giving us a portrait of america. only ten questions, only ten minutes to answer, it will determine the allocation of federal funds to their communities for the next ten years and could actually give them more political power in the united states' congress. >> how this is going to work is the census, i understand dr. groves, is happening on march 2010, is that right? >> the forms go out in march and we want you to return your form by april 1. >> what's the biggest misconception? >> i think the biggest misconception about e census is that it's boring and long. and it turns out this is the shortest census in history. in our lifetimes. it takes every household just ten minutes to fill out and it's really important. it's easy and i think the other thing to know for many of your audiences is that this is a safe thing to do. we have very strong laws that

protect the confidentiality of this data. >> i want to say, you'll each be driving one of these vehicles, right? >> these advance will drive about 150,000 miles over the next few months. stop at 800 different events, they'll be at the super bowl. they'll be at march madness, they'll be everywhere. if you can't see the van yourself, where you can learn a lot about the ceus, you can follow us on 2010census.gov. we'll be tweeting, blogging, uploading youtube videos. >> it's 20 degrees, and dr. groves really wanted to get this message out. he's out here without a coat. >> this is nothing. >> this is a walk in the park. >> thank you very much. we want you to share what america looks like in your neighborhood. and what would surprise people about the demographics in your community. log on to todayshow.com to submit your photos and voice and nbc news will pick entries from your submissions. how about a check of the

weather, mr. roker? >> let's show you what's happening as far as your forecast is concerned today, bitterly cold throughout much of the country. rain throughout the pacific northwest. freezing fog in central nevada. snowshowers in the eastern great lakes. tomorrow that continues. the cold air continues as well. more wet weather in the pacific northwest. sunny and m and m good morning, if your have to spend an extended period outside, deft layer up with your warmest winter gear. in the mid 20s around the region. it's 25 in the washington. latest wind gusts around 20 miles an hour so the windchills are in the teens to near ten degrees. a-plusserry win gusting don't forget, any time of the day or night, check your

weather on the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. when we come back, we'll check in with apollo ohno and find out about his views for the

>> this morning on today's countdown to vancouver, with 39 days until the opening ceremony, we're camping up with a man who could become the most decorated u.s. winter olympian ever. speed skater apolo anton ohno is heading to his third winter games, two gold medals, one silver, two bronze. the seattle native is known for his signature look, a bandana and soul patch. he took the title in season four of "dancing with the stars." apolo, good morning to you. could become the most decorated american athlete in the winter olympics, ever. what you hear that, what goes through your mind? >> some chills. you know, i try to, first and

foremost, i do my sport because i love it. i love being an olympian. i love going and representing my country. but to know that you know, i could be up there with some of the greats of olympians is amazing. but you know, i just love going out there and competing and giving it my best. >> you don't really focus on that? >> i try not to. >> you've been training very, very hard in salt lake city at the olympic oval there. it's where you competed in your first olympics back in 2002, winning the gold and the silver. is it nostalgia to be back there, training there? >> well it's, it's almost like i've come full circle. in the beginning of my career. i learned how to speed skate in vancouver bc. i'm from seattle. i learned how to skate in vancouver. my first olympic breakthrough career was in salt lake city. now towards the end of my career, i've moved back to salt lake city to train. and i'm essentially possibly could be finishing my olympic experience in vancouver. so hopefully the circle has some

underlying meaning, i don't know. i think so, i like 0 believe so. >> your dad used to take you to vancouver. you lived in seattle, he would drive you to vancouver to drain when you were just a kid. he's been soex a part of this process for you. >> a huge support. >> what does his support mean? >> everything. he's taught me, so many lessons that i learned from sport can be applicable towards any part of life in itself. that's why i think that you know, so many kids should be involved in sports and have a good time, you know. >> you should be training but you're here in new york and there's a reason why. why are you here? >> i'm here in new york. i should be training. i'm usually training. we're about to go into my final stage of preparation. but i'm here along with shawn johnson. we're here because necessarily, necessarily crunch has -- >> necessarily is one of your sponsors. >> one of my sponsors, yes. they've revamped basically one of the most delicious bars out there. the necessarily crunch bar. i, my personal favorite is the chocolate. hers, she's into the crispies.

so we went to park city. >> she challenged you, right? >> yes, she did a back-flip over a bobsled. we challenged each other to different events, kind of extreme. to see which team is better, team chocolate or team crispies. i went dune the luge on my skates. you can see that online on facebook.com/necessarithe faceok.com/nestlecrunch. >> did you really do that or is it superimposed. >> you've got to go to the website and see what you think. i actually did go down the luge. buff you have but you have to t look. >> i want to ask you the fact you're 27 years old and called yourself the old man on the circuit. do you push yourself harder to

work? >> i like to think that i always work hard. my belief in sport has always been, i don't want to leaveny regrets, so you know, other guys may, kind of just -- halfway do things. for me, i want to be 100% totally immersed in my sport. so when i do walk away, regardless of the outcome. i can say, you know what, i have no regrets. ky smile, regardless of what happens. life is too short to be able to not just say, i'm going to give 100% towards this thing. whatever the outcome. the result is not always in our control. in all aspects of life. for me, i truly believe, if i can go out there, prepare as best i can. walk away with no regrets, i'm still a champion. >> after the last olympics, you competed in "dancing with the stars." was that scarier than anything you've done on the ice? >> a couple of times on the show, i actually blacked out. when i'm in the games, skating, i'm in my element. when i'm out there dancing in front of millions of people, i

don't know what i'm doing, i'm very nervous. looking at some of these videos here, i can't believe i actually did that. it was a blast. a totally eye-opening experience. i learned a lot about myself. and it gave me a lot of confidence, i think that hopefully i can bring into the skating arena. >> rumoras it this might be your last olympics and you might segue into showbiz, is there any truth to that? >> i think possibly. if there's opportunities that lie in my path, absolutely. why not? >> we look forward to seeing you on the ice. >> thank you. >> apolo anton ohno, thank you. and the 2010 winter games in vancouveret under way on february 12th here on nbc. we'll be there for all of the action. up next, how they start 2010 on the right financial foot. but first, this is "today" on

back now at 8:45 with today's money 911. each week we have our panel of financial experts to answer your questions when it comes to money matters. now, "today" financial editor, jean chatzky has put a lot of her advice in the new book "money 911." your most pressing money questions answered, your money emergencies solved. this is a great idea. the book is a little bit like a reference guide. you don't have to read it cover to cover. you can kind of go in there and look for the problems you're dealing with. >> that's what i hope people do. i read the whole thing for the  audio book and nobody should read this book cover to ver. >> that's the first time an author has come on to say that. >> the publicist is now going to kill me. but here's the deal, it's all indexed. and when you have a money question, when you want to know, how do i fix my credit? what do i do about my insurance? how do i handle my mother's estate? you want the answer now and you

want it from a trusted source. it's like what to expect when you're expecting. >> and by the way, you deal with things like foreclosure, huge issues down to how to find coupons, which points out that when it comes to financial stability, no detail is too small. >> no detail is too small. the longest book i've ever written in 20 years of advice and information up to date. >> every wednesday we put you together, we put you to the test by letting viewers ask you questions about their money emergencies. and we wanted to bring some of those viewers back to kind of see how your advice worked for them or didn't work. >> or didn't. >> rose first asked her question in august. she wanted to know if it was still beneficial to put her money into a 529 plan. your advice at the time was -- >> my advice was take a look at the 529 and make sure you're in the right one for you. this was a time at which people d taken a real hit. but i believe for her state, i told her to stay put. >> she was living in ohio. rose is joining us on the phone now enter cleveland. rose, good morning, happy new year.

>> good morning jean and matt, happy new year to you. >> dell me about jean's advice, did it help you in that particular time? >> it absolutely did. she gave me a website to look at. it was savingforcollege.com. i did check it out. the fund i was in, had a 4 1/2 out of 5 cap rating which was good. and i called my adviser and found out i was in an age-based account. so my son, being a senior in high school would be well-served, it was adjusting itself. i didn't have to make any modification to make it more conservative. so it was absolutely spot-on advice and it really helped. >> in your case, jean can keep her job. would you change the advice now, jean, if times changed at all? >> no, absolutely not. you want to make sure you're in the right 529 plan for you. and all the references and resources and websites that we talk about in "money 911" so you can find them. >> are you a happy customer? >> i'm a happy customer, it was worth the trip to new york and visit my sister.

>> jean, kathy originally appeared back on "money 911" in march. she had a $500,000 in the stock market and it dropped to $350,000. with retirement just three years away, she wanted to know if they should take her money as is, or put it in a cd. you said what? >> i said do not take it out and move it to a cd. make sure that your assets are appropriately allocated for your age and then ride this out. >> kathy is joining us now via skype. kathy, do you love jean or do you want to come in here and throttle her? >> oh, no, no. i love her to pieces. absolutely love her to pieces. >> thank you, kathy. >> i'll tell you why, first off, one of the things you told me was to lay off the panic button at my age. which i was laying on heavily. because i thought, oh, wow, i only have a few years left. another thing you said was also to increase savings. which we did. and most importantly, to stay in the market. and i'll tell you what, if i had gone the cd route, i probably would have made about, oh, 1.75%

increase. and instead of dropping the 40% in the market we're now down only about 17%. >> so you've rebounded. >> so thank you so much. >> that's great, kathy. i just want to clarify, kathy, when you said i only have a few years left, you meant of working, not of living, right? >> right, working. >> all right, kathy, thanks. >> retirement lasts a really long time. so people need to understand. >> again, good advice in the book and you can kind of take -- do not read this book cover to cover. >> do not. just open it and use a little bit at a time. >> jean chatzky, thanks, you can read an excerpt of the book on our website. jean's going to be back in our next half hour. but first, this is "today"n nbc. if i had to sit on a bench during the middle of a game due to diabetes it would frustrate me. in a basketball game a couple minutes could mean a big momentum shift. my bayer meter is very important. (announcer) only bayer's contour meter has programmable personal high low settings.

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this morning on today's call to action, healing wounded warriors. in a program that caters specifically to women. here's nbc's kerry sanders. >> reporter: high the colorado rockies, on the slopes at snowmass dramatically altered lives are evolving in the way these service members never expected. thanks to an organization called challenge aspen. military opportunities. or camo. >> nothing is beyond my reach. as long as i try. and that's the thing. things that i haven't done before -- i want to be able to

at least have the nerve to give it a try. >> reporter: 33-year-old irashekia henry is among a group of warriors learning to ski. each combat injury is different, but the vets here share one thing in common, they're all women. >> what have you discovered about the depths of america's gratitude? >> that it's limitless. >> nice, beautiful! >> so good to see the support that you know, americans like myself do have. it will make me cry. but -- i love it. i do. it touches my heart. >> over the past seven years, 35,000 members of the military have been wounded in combat in iraq and afghanistan.

almost 700 of them are women. >> it seems unrecognized until this point. that these women are not just arriving. they've been coming back from the war zones for sometime. >> they have. female service members account for 15% of active personnel and more have been killed and wounded in this conflict than any other time. >> reporter: while women and men face the same physical and mental challenges, the way they cope is very different. >> things happen when you're with women. i i've talked to some of the women this weekend and just some of the same things that are a concern for me, are a concern for them. >> reporter: and if you were with a group of guys? >> there's not that conversation. >> reporter: 33-year-old tara hutchinson was leading a patrol in iraq when an ied exploded. >> in that second that that pop happened, my body instantly went into shock. before i even knew what had happened, before i even looked down and saw that my leg was basically severed --

>> reporter: tara, like the other women, said she started to look to her future only after opening up with other wounded women. >> you talk about the hard times that you've had with your kids or the struggles you've had with your marriage. and you know, maybe you take some advice away from that. something that might help you in the future. >> reporter: bonds forged on the side of a mountain, doing what none of them thought possible. zanetta adams proved it to herself and her kids. hey guys, how has she done, has she fallen? >> no, but let's go skiing now. >> this has been the most incredible week. >> reporter: a week of achievements capped off with a celebration. >> i'd really like to raise a toast to our very incredible inspirational female wounded warriors. female wounded women, fighting their new battles together. for today, kerry sanders, nbc

news, snowmass, our time right now is 8:56, 25 degrees out there, very cold this morning, we have a new school closing to tell you about. earl b. wood elementary school is in rockville is closed because of a lack of heat there that. that's the earl b. wood elementary school is closed. this morning the team announced that jim zorn has been fired as head coach less than five hours after the skins finished a disappointing season in san diego with a loss to the san diego challengers. watch your speed, 50 speed cameras are now up near school zones throughout the county. drivers who get caught can expect a $40 ticket. wel come bac and

for the first time this year, ice forming on the potomac. we have been below freezing for the last 24 hours. winds have been gusting to around 20 to 25-mile-per-hour so the windchills are in the low teens to near 10 degrees now. and we'll have these windchills with us throughout the rest of the day as temperatures only climb to around perhaps near freezing by mid afternoon. maybe a few flurries flying

through the air by late afternoon and this evening. blustery this afternoon and tomorrow. highs mid 30s both of these days. maybe a little light snow on thursday and friday. >> we'll take a look at the rush hour winding down just about on time. the 270 corridor to past falls road things are moving fine. 395 and i-95 loading up. moments ago it was moving along very nicely so there apparently is an issue right at the beltway an 95. >> now we're going to go b in the battle against clothing stains, spray 'n wash has always been a trusted ally. now our expertise is combined with the power of resolve. spray 'n wash is now called resolve. tough on stains, safe on clothes. trust resolve. forget stains.

back now with more of "today" on a monday morning, the 4th day of january, 2010. as we mentioned a couple of times, we've got frigid temperatures here in the northeast. and arctic blast being felt really in many parts of the country. so we can't whine too much. we should also thank these people for sticking it out. welcome to the new year, i'm matt lauer, along with natalie morales and al roker. >> happy new year to you. i haven't seen you all in two weeks. >> coming up, you're going to talk about some new details or new developments in the tiger woods story? >> that's right.

reports that tiger's wife, elin was spotted in the french alps at a ski resort over the holidays. the question remains, where's tiger and speculation mounting over whether they're going to stay together. we'll bring you the latest on what could be in store for the couple in the new year. >> did you guys make resolutions? a lotf people did resolutions. well -- >> you guys are animated. i love it. >> it's estimated only about 19% of the folks actually keep those resolutions. if one of your resolutions was getting healthy. losing a few pounds, we've got tips and it's not all about exercise. >> cool. also 2009 was a tough year for a lot of people financially with the economic downturn. jean chatzky has dished out an awful lot of advice during the past 12 months. this morning, we're going to catch up with some of the people who were the recipients of that advice to find out how it worked for them. >> hopefully it's paid off. >> otherwise jean's in trouble. former "today" financial consultant, jean chatzky. >> it's tough in new york.

ann is standing by at the news desk. >> thanks a lot, matt. good morning once again, everybody. in the news this morning, starting today, passengers flying to the united states from yemen, nigeria, pakistan and other countries, the government considers high risk, are facing increased airport screening, including pat-downs and searches. the measures are an attempt to respond to a failed attempt to bomb a passenger jet in detroit on christmas day. on sunday, there were massive delays at newark airport, meantime, after a man bypassed a security checkpoint, flights were grounded for six hours and all passengers had to be rescreened. the man who walked through security was not found. the military says four u.s. troops were killed on sunday by a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan. they are the first u.s. combat deaths in afghanistan this year. bitter cold grips much of the nation this morning, with temperatures way below the normal for the rockies to florida. we've got nbc's jeff rossen in

new york's times square on this. good morning. >> reporter: hey, ann, good morning to you. freezing on the streets of manhattan. just checked the wind chill. it makes it feel like nine degrees, an improvement from a couple of hours ago, when it was only five or six. we were thinking we had it bad, but then we looked up, international falls, minnesota. with a wind chill right now of negative 31. some cities, like new york, dealing with the bitter cold. others are dealing with heavy snow. and some are dealing with both at once. as snow piles up in the northeast and temperatures dip well below zero in the midwest, you have the winter weather lovers -- >> it's like a winter wonderland. >> and the haters. >> it's unreal -- it's a blizzard. >> reporter: in indiana, it's so cold -- even the street salt won't melt the ice. >> the roads are in poor condition. the roads are snow-packed, slick and hazardous. >> reporter: in buffalo, new

york, fans could barely see sunday's bills-colts game. near whiteout conditions on the field. and the brain-freeze in the stands. in minneapolis, firefighters struggled when stores and homes went up in flames. the fire hydrants were iced over. in detroit, an nbc viewer took home video of this ice rescue. ree teenagers were stranded when their boat got stuck in icy waters. and in new york city, the thrill of new year's eve seems like an after-thought. bundled up with wd chills in the single digits. >> this is ridiculous, this is too cold. >> if you have exposed skin and you go outside, you don't have all your skin covered, you can get frostbitten in some ten minutes. this is dangerous cold. >> reporter: dangerous for drivers, too. >> ice, a lot of cars in ditches. we missed florida. we miss the south. >> reporter: it's not much better there. temperatures in jacksonville, florida, dipped into the 30s overnight. shelters have opened their doors

and beds. >> i think we're hovering around 50 or 60. but they keep coming in. so it's, it's going to be a long night. >> reporter: and a long week to come. the cold isn't going anywhere. >> it's fabulous. we love it. >> it' beautiful. >> reporter: beautiful she says. you know, it's not so beautiful, when the cold wind hits you right in the face. in fact, winds were so strong, ann, in the northeast this weekend, there were major flight delays from boston down to d.c. of two hours or who. >> well jeff rossen, i hope you can get inside now, thanks so much for your reporting. also in the news, the manhunt is over for a suspect accused of killing four family members on thanksgiving in florida. paul merhige, accused of killing his twin sisters, an aunt a a cousin was booked on sunday, ordered held without bond. and a big money milestone for "avatar," which held on to the top spot of the weekend box office, it took in more than $68 million. and became only the fifth movie ever to bass the $1 billion mark

worldwide. "sherlock holmes" was second. let's go back outside to matt. thank you very much. mr. roker is right here with a check of the weather. >> got a 14-year-old birthday girl. who's the birthday girl? what's your name? >> lexi. >> where are you from? >> colorado. >> happy birthday. >> thank you. >> get in and get warm. >> let's check your weather and see what's happening. we've got the cold air in there. let's take a look. you can see freeze warnings from iowa all the way down to florida. it is cold and you can see the temperatures right now, 35 below in international falls, four above in st. louis. factor in the wind chill, look at that, it feels even worse. then the high temperatures, single digits throughout the upper plains. only 19 in chicago. that cold air spreads all the way to the eastern seaboard. you can see 40s and 50s down through florida. in fact florida, having a lot of problems, they've got upper 20s in jacksonville, only 45 in miami. wind chills make it feel worse. high temperatures keep that

pretty chilly. and the jet stream, the band of air 20,000 feet above the earth's surface, nothing is changing today, wednesday, on and those northwest winds continue to bring in the arctic air over our region this morning, still below freezing all around the region. just in the mid 20s now, 26 in washington, winds gusting to around 20 to 25 miles an hour, bringing our windchills down to 10 degrees in many locations and we'll have the winds a bit blustery throughout the day today and maybe a few flurries this afternoon and this evening. highs near freezing, a bit warmer natalie? >> al, thank you. now to the whereabouts of tiger woods. the golf great hasn't been seen since he crashed his suv outside his florida home back in november. but over the holidays, his wife, elin was out and about with her friends and family.

nbc's george lewis has more. >> reporter: the scandal-hungry british tabloid newspapers are feasting on the tiger woods story. his estranged wife, elin nordegren, spotted by paparazzi on the ski slopes in the french alps. reportedly stayi with her sister and close friends at an $8,000 a night chalet under heavy security. >> it does look like elin is moving on. the fact is that she's not just sitting at home, crying. she's out with people who love her, who she loves. and she's spending time there. >> reporter: it's a vacation that nordegren can easily afford, especially if the stories about her demanding a $300 million divorce payout from woods are true. >> by all accounts, it looks like this couple is not going to go the distance. we're hearing more and more frequently rumors that elin is actually looking to plan a new life without her husband. >> reporter: woods, meanwhile, hasn't been seen lately. the blogosphere buzzing with rumorshat he's either in rehab

in arizona for sex addiction. at home in florida, or off somewhere with one of his mistresses. >> there are rumors that tiger is everywhere, from new york to dubai. right now he's keeping a low profile and no one really knows where he is. >> reporter: and no word on when tiger woods will return to the pro golf circuit. his critics saying while he may rack up moreajor victories in the future, his mystique as a superstar player is gone now. and while barring a reconciliation, his wife, elin, may wind up as a very wealthy divorcee. for "today," george lewis, nbc news, los angeles. so will tiger and elin stay together? with more insight on that, bernie hazlit who writes the scoop column on msnbc joins us. we heard in george's spot, a lot of speculation and sources indicate it looks like their marriage is over. but over the weekend, people.com had a picture of her where she was spotted wearing her wedding ring. is there any indication from your sources that there isome sort of reconciliation in the

works? >> there's absolutely indication from my sources that there's a reconciliation that's at least being attempted. to say that's in the works, that might be overstating it slightly. to note there's been a lot of improvement on the state of their marriage. i'm told things are still very, very dicey. now with elin being spotted photographed, wearing her wedding ring, listen, this couple, you have to remember, was, they were masters at staying oust of the spotlight when they wanted. they were masters of their own public it up to the point where they lost control of it. they got that control back. that's why you see these photographs that are very carefully planned. first without the wedding rings, and now with what appear to be wedding rings. >> and these pictures of her being away in the alps, with her children there. spending time away from tiger. does this give any indication as to what is going on with that relationship. is there any reports of them actually talking? >> yes. definitely reports of them talking. they're working on this marriage, according to the people that i know who know the couple as a couple. not just sources who might know

elin or might know tiger. but really do know the woods family as a family unit. i think it speaks volumes that elin woods was skiing for days before anybody knew about it once word got out, that's when they took control of the situation again. and you saw a photograph. and also, you're not seeing her out gallivanting with a bunch of girlfriends, she's with family. she's with her sister and her sister's husband. this is something they're buckling down and trying to see what they can reconcile out of the situation. >> her twin sister, josephine and they were out on new year's eve and day together. what does it say about the support system tt's surrounding her right now? >> a tremendous support system around elin i think is very interesting as well. that she was close with tiger's mom. this isn't a family that was estranged from the parental units. tiger's mom was very involved in the upbringing of her grandchildren. would spend weeks at a time in their home in florida. tiger is a guy who traveled a lot, elin needed some help and they turned to family for that and they're turning to family again right now. >> the million-dollar question for the paparazzi is where is

tiger woods. what are your sources telling you about his whereabouts. >> he's here in the united states. i'm told he's not in florida where his home is. >> not in rehab. >> and reports that he's in some sex clinic i'm being told by family and friends, that's not true, either. tiger will reveal himself when he wants to. at this point i think this is an interesting example of a team completely losing control of a situation and quickly getting it back. when we see tiger again, i suspect it will be 100% of his own doing, not a paparazzi photo. >> over the weekend, we learned that at&t has ended its relationship with tiger woods. is there concern from his camp that as we've seen more of these responderships start to drop off that this is going to add up? >> the at&t sponsor, that didn't come in the midst of the flurry of the people dropping their sponsorship. it came after we had heard some of them. it was surprising and it did ise the extra question. and "golf digest" saying they were going to distance themselves from a very pricey

contract they had with tiger. i don't think you're going to see sponsors come back until he proves he's got his game back. >> who is stickg with him? >> nike. their deal is intricate it involves clubs and apparel. more than just putting a logo and having tiger be the face. that's why they're definitely sticking with him. >> thanks so much as always. coming up, your money questions answered. jean chatzky gets you on the right track for the new year and follows up with past callers to see if their financial advice has helped out. tips to keep your mind and body in shape for 2010 right now after this. it's simponi,™ and taken with methotrexate, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur,

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this morning we're kicking offer a new series, "new year, new you. every year millions of americans resolve to stick to a new diet and get healthy. how do you beat the odds? today's nutritionist and author of "your inner skinny" joy bauer is here and dr. gail saltser. >> as a diet and health coach, this is my absolute favorite time of the year. because ambitious health intentions. they beev in their capabilities and believing you can do something is the key ingredient to success. >> so gail, what happens? >> what happens is we feel overwhelmed at the task. no one likes to feel overwhelmed so they go into a state of denial. i don't really need it. and what's a big factor is, a lot of dieting is emotional. and if you don't understand the

unconscious motivation for eating, for you, or for not exercising for that matter, for being generally unhealthy, then it's very hard to move forward. >> so what's the first step? >> you really need to deal with the issue of, do i need this or don't i need this. to not go into denial. to say it's not just that i like this or want this but that i need to do this for me. and take a look at what the unconscious motivations might be for eating and try to address those as well. not just what your diet will be. but am i sad, am i angry, am i having difficulties in some arena that propel me to eat. >> in a sense, what's the motivation for eating. >> yes. and to know sometimes it's going to be uncomfortable to sit with those feelings without numbing it with food. >> joy, you say one of the first things you should do is be a copycat. >> right, because you want to come kopppy the characteristics of successful losers, so to speak. this is what we know, thanks to the national weight control registry. 78% of successful dieters eat a

healthy breakfast every single day. they also weigh themselves at least once a week, as sort of a reality check. they watch less -- >> or like me, once a day. >> they watch less than 10 hours of tv per week. and on average, they exercise about an hour a day. and i realize, that 60 minutes seems daunting to a lot of people. but remember that 30 minutes of exercise, is more than zero minutes of exercise. and it doesn't have to be continuous. it can be bite-sized pieces. ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon and ten minutes in the evening. >> but gail, a lot of people i think, when they look at this, they start to panic. they can't deal with it. >> you need to break it into bite-sized pieces. >> no pun intended. >> exactly. >> i'm so glad you said that, because i would have kept going. you have your long-term goal. but you want to have a weekly goal or maybe even a daily goal. and a really useful thing is to write it down. it's very easy to fudge it with later. it's easy to say no, in is too

scary, never mind. if you write it down, yes, you really said it. this is my weekly goal and you don't have to look so far out, it's less scary. >> and i love the idea of making both short-term weekly goals and the long templ goal. the long-term goal might be, i want to lose 60 pounds. but the weekly goal could be, you know what, i'm not going to eat after dinner, every night this week. >> people look at 60 pounds, that's such a big number. but if you average it out, that's a little more than a pound a week, maybe. >> that could be another short-term goal. i want to lose one pound this week. >> and joy, you say become a fidgety person? >> right, you want to move more in general. in other words, walk when you talk. pace around the kitchen when you're on the phone. instead of having your kids be the errand boys, so to speak, fetch the phone, the mail, the remote control yourself. >> park a little further from the mall entrance. >> and don't be so official with your groceries, instead of bundling five or six big bags in your arms, take one or two into

the house from the driveway at a time. you know, it's going to make you work a little more so. and it's going to extend the time getting the groceries into the house. but you're going to burn calories. and also, while you're flopped on the couch watching tv, during those commercial breaks, get up and move. march in place, do some jumping jacks. we've got this tv workout for free on our website that people can download. >> good advice for people who want more information, they can go to our website, todayshow.com and get that information. joy bauer, gail saltz, thank you so much. how to get rid of the unhealthy belly fat, we've got tips, but first, these messages. that put you in charge of your world and hungry and the online tools to help you face any situation. which means 'darn right you can go to the dinner party' and still loose weight. and learn how to keep it off. join for free now. sorry hungry, you're not invited. but you are, join for free today and change your life. weight watchers. stop dieting. start living.

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9 p:26 is our time right now. 26 degrees outside. you can see the ice forming along the edges of the potomac river. good morning, i'm joe krebs. in the news for today. the jim zor era is over for the washington redskins, the team fired him earlier this morning after two years on the job. the skins went 4 and 12 this season and had a 12 and 20 record during zorn's tenure. winds's star says he will meet with the police about his decision for the team to bring

guns into the locker room. he says he used bad judgment. he still won't discuss reports that he and a teammate drew guns on each other during an argume

good morning, partly to mostly cloudy now, temperatures are in the mid 20s, windchills in the teens and we'll have a high today just around freezing. the winds will be gusting 20 to 25 miles an hour throughout the day today, tonight and tomorrow. tuesday and wednesday much colder than average, highs in the low 40s. >> a pothole has developed on the outer lop of the beltway near eisenhower avenue keeping traffic very slow.

crews have started their work on the 14th street bridge. >> want to mention that earl b. wood middle school in rockville closed today because of a lack of ahead. we'll be back in 2

you may just have to hit road, jack in the new year if you're looking for a real estate bargain. coming up tomorrow here on "today," the top ten towns to check out to get the most bang for your buck. some pretty homes there. speaking of bucks, coming up in this half hour, we'll be looking forward to the new year with our financial editor, jean chatzky, she's been part of this money 911 series we've been doing every week on this broadcast. this morning she'll be taking a look at and listen to some of the people she's given advice to, to hear whether or not her advice on pay things like paying

offtudent loans, whether or not it's helped or hurt the viewers, we'll be checking it out. and also ahead, getting rid of stubborn jelly fat. while a jelly belly can be endearing on santa claus, it's a serious and dangerous problem for many. so our fitness expert will be here to show you what your ideal waist measurement should be. and eating plans. yes, you can have ice cream, believe it or not, made a certain way. >> talng about belly-friendly, how about seared scallops with ginger? that sounds pretty good. ming sai is here, he's going to show us who to make some lighter fare. with some asian flair. it sounds yummy. but first, a check of the weather. >> and as we take a look at today, we can see the week ahead, we've got rain in the pacific northwest. snow in the plains, snow around the great lakes. much below-normal temperatures for the eastern third of the country. mid-week period, light showers

through the gulf coast. light snow through the ohio valley, and toward the latter part of the week, the cold air is back, entrenched in the eastern half of the the we have frigid temperatures, still only in the mid 20s, we have winds gusting to 20 to 25 miles an hour. which brings our windchills down into the teens to near 10 degrees. we'll have those windchills with us throughout the rest of the afternoon and into this evening and tomorrow. highs today just near freezing and we might get a few flurries late this afternoon and evening. tomorrow and wednesday, partly r cloudy, still much and that's your latest weather. coming up next, battling the bulge, some ideas about how you can lose that dangerous belly fat. ( music, cheering )

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this morning on take it off today, the battle against belly fat. two-thirds of american adults are overweight or obese. and many of them carrying the extra pounds in their midsection, and that can be dangerous for your health and fitness expert jorge cruise has more in his new book. why is it so bad for you? >> all the research has shown it's connected to the biggest killers out there. coronary heart disease in particular and cancer a type ii diabetes. so it just doesn't make us not look good. which is important, because we wanto have good self-esteem and confidence, it robs us of that. and it really can hurt our health. >> how does it build in the

midsection. it's not so much about counting calories or eating less, but being aware of what causes insulin. when it's chronically high, what happens is we lock in belly fat. we keep the belly fat. we never get rid of belly fat. that's so important to realize that what causes insulin to go ut is what we have to avoid. and that tends to come from eating the wrong amounts of sugar and carbohydrates. so it's being aware of that, not so much the calories. >> you have a way to help us measure? >> now at home. you probably have one of these at home. i'll do a quick demo. you just do a measurement. you suck in, if you want to find out if you're at risk for belly fat, you want to suck it in. for the guys out there, i'm lucky. i'm okay. >> right above the belly button, right in that area. you want to make sure you're 40 inches or less if you're a man. and if you're a woman, 35 inches or less as a goal. that's what the american heart association is recommending. this is so much more powerful than even getting on the scale. so if new year's resolution, can

you actually not use the scale as much. use the tape measure. >> let's tackle a day's worth of your menu choices out there. a lot of choices will surprise our viewers. >> starting off with breakfast. what an example of a belly-bad breakfast. looking at it i was, are you kidding me? >> most people would have a yogurt and a piece of fruit and a banana. >> not bad, but it has 45 grams of sugar. that spikes your insulin immediately. i tell your clients, you want 0 stick to 15 grams of sugar or less total for the whole day. so right there you surpassed it. >> you do the yogurt without sugar. >> 31 grams, i'll show you in a minute how we can do that over. is that the next example? >> what would be a good belly good breakfast. >> a vegetable omelette. imagine three eggs, you can have the yoke, that's not going to cause a spike in insulin. you can put a little feta cheese, a little spinach, zero sugar. huge difference, healthy meal and you won't have to starve.

>> it's not calories in, it's all about the sugar, okay. moving on to lunch, another example of a belly-bad lunch. a smoothie,hich i think is -- >> 0 or it could be a meal replacement. some sort of shake. they're usually fat-free. but what the research says, if you can get something that doesn't have the issue, and it's more about the sugar for example, instead of doing a shake or a smoothie, which is 84 grams of sugar, you could do a grilled cheese sandwich. >> that's craziness to me. >> i can have grilled cheese? >> and you want to check the bread. there's a lot of great whole whaet breads with no sugar. >> your midday snack, a lot of us would think 100-calorie packs, not so bad. >> they think because they have less calories. but 18 grams of sugar. and most of these little calorie packs, these cookies. what we recommend instead is dark chocolate, has only five

grams, you want to make sure it's 86% of dark chocolate. you get a really indulgent snack ha has good bioflavins, good anti-oxidants and only five grams of sugar. >> and dinner. again another surprising one, i think a lot of us would say grilled chicken strips and barbeque sauce. >> not even any carbs, you say that's so healthy and i'll have a little sauce. but that's one of the places that sugar hides. barbeque sauce has 17 grams of sugar for the average amount. what i would do is carb-swap it. for a chicken alfredo pasta. which has no sugar at all. >> lots of fat. >> it has fat. but that helps to satisfy your hunger, so you'll eat less of it so you don't have to count the calories. for dessert, fafree chocolate milk, 54 grams of sugar, and it's fat-free. >> you can substitute with ice cream. >> i have a home-made ice cream that's been downloaded on our website, 300,000 times.

made with a special ingredient called mallitol. it's like real ice cream. people love it, it gives you the ability to satisfy the sweet tooth without all the sugar. traditionally one scoop of ice cream has 54 grams of sugar. this one on our blog, people loved it. it was easy to do. >> it was at jorgecruise.com? >> yes, or the bellyfatcure.com. >> theook is called "the belly fat cure." thanks again, happy new year to you, jorge. coming up next, financial editor jean chatzky will check in with some of our money 911 callers. there are as many paths to good health...

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"today" financial editor jean chatzky doles out advice. now in "money 911" jean puts the answers all in one place. what is the one question you say you get more than any other? >> this year the big question has been revolving around debt, how do i get out of it. how do i improve my credit score. we all took on a little bit more than we wanted to. now we're trying to dig our way out. >> is there an answer to that that's easy? >> there are many answers to that. if what you're looking to do is paying offer your credit cards, you want to make sure you're paying off the highest interest rates first, and then move on. that will get you out of it fastest and cheapest. >> that makes sense, basically you were saying there's something from all of the things, people get overwhelmed. we've all gotten smarter listening to your advice. it still is sometimes overwhelming. what's the one thing, if we could just understand one idea, what would you recommend it be? >> when i put pencil to paper or my fingers to the keyboard to

write this book, i did it because when we want answers to our financial questions, we want them right now. and we want them from somebody that we can trust. and yes, there's a lot of infoation on the internet. but sometimes there's just too much. and you need to have that dr. spock at home, that you can go to and say, all right, here is the answer and i know it's correct. >> so, jean chatzky, aka dr. spock. >> i'll be a vulcan. >> you got a call from a woman named wendy last may. she and her husnd at that time, were about $90,000 in credit card debt. she has no children, they're both employed. they wanted to know how they could get out of their credit card debt. what was your advice? >> i told her to talk to the consumer credit counseling service. she was interested in debt settlement. which is potentially a dangerous area for some people to go down. you should try credit counseling first. i suggested that to her. >> we actually have wendy on the telephone. >> wendy, did that work?

hi, good morning. did jean's advice help or hurt you? you want to slam her or give her a hug. >> caller: jean's advice helped us a lot. it helped us understand our options and how to manage the $90,000 debt load we had. we did take her advice and we sought out a consumer counseling service. and we filled out a budget worksheet. and the director did a budget summary on us for the debt salvage program. after the consultation, reviewing the budget worksheet that the director advised us to seek legal counsel, because we'd have it pay 30% interest on top of the $90,000 we owed over a five-year period. and we couldn't afford to do that. then so what we did is we filed chapter 13 and we are now paying 100% of our debt load back to the creditors with no interest over a five-year period. >> the credit counselg services, and wendy, that is exactly the order of operations that you wanted to follow. the credit counseling is a step

before bankruptcy. in fact, everybody has t go through it. it's mandated by law. and if it can help you, if you can be helped by credit counseling, then you don't have to file bankruptcy and it doesn't have to stay on your credit report for such a long time. >> this is one of those kinds of bits of information that most people don't even know. we've also got lana. she called us in december and told us that one of her credit cards was about to start charging a monthly fee. she's had the card for ten years, she didn't want to have to pay an additional charge. this is kind of common. people are getting these charges. >> it's so common lately that people are seeing these charges. what i told you, i think, lana, was that you could opt out of paying this fee by telling the card company that you weren't going to use the card any more. and you were just going to pay off the balance at the current rate with the old fee. but that you should be very careful about doing that. if you wanted to take on a mortgage entitle next year or a car loan. >> did that hel you, lana? >> yes, definitely. i'm going to, i'm keeping the

card until i am able to secure a mortgage. a loan or a big loan that might come up in the next couple of years. >> well that's terrific news, so lana was helped as well. so jean, try as we might, we're not finding anyone who is really mad at you, yet. >> we'll do our best. i'm sure there's someone, somewhere. >> the book is called "money 911" we'll see you next wednesday for our regular series. coming up next, we've got chef ming

this morning in today's kitchen, lighter fare for the new year. in you overdid it for the holidays, time for a fresh start. ming sai owner of ming's restaurant in wesley, massachusetts, host of "simply

ming" on pbs, scallops, nice and light? >> scallops are super-light, the thing i love about this dish. they've been seared on both sides. we then do a pan sauce in the same. so a pat of butter, right? you don't need a lot. just for flavor. i leave all the stuff in there. a little bit of shall otts, a little bit of ginger, a little bit of thyme and some carrots. this is the sauce. it's basically done. we deglaze with a little bit of white wine. let this come together and a little bit of chicken stock. and your one-pan sauce is done. >> chicken stock, not fish stock? >> chicken stock. in the cans is not bad. as that's reducing, let's make cous-cous. this is wheat-free tamari. this is boiling water. the ratio is three to two, three parts boiling water to two parts cous-cous. it takes about ten minutes only

and that's what you have here. >> the magic of television, tada. >> here we scrape it with the back of a fork. go like that. and i take some thai basil, hand-rip thai basil into this. and we can plate this up. what i did before you got here, al, is this asian ratatouille, which is a bunch of tomatoes, all good for you, eggplant cooked in olive oil. so let's plate this up. we're going to do a fancy plate up and you can look just like a chef. you push that down, expect to use a bottle to push it flat. we then take a little bit and put this on top. this is what you can do for your family. they'll be like, wow. and push that down a little with a spoon. and this dish is basically done. all right? and then you pull this off. and look at that. >> ooh. >> a little bit of thy ba thai n

top. and i like to did a little olive oil on top. how good is that? >> now look at our pan sauce. this is done. all right. so this you take and lay it right on. the carrots are delicious, right. put them all over the scallops and there's the one-pan dish. so you grab the cous-cous. and i'll meet you back here, al. we have one more dish which i love, it's so simple. this is a tapinade. but instead, we used edamame, soybeans. very healthy. these are a brown rice, whole-grain chip that's good for you. >> wow. that smells good. >> and all of this is from simply ming season seven. you just saw this, you cooked it. very easy. this is preserved lemons and edamame. you want to try a scallop? >> yes. >> tell me what you think about this. i'm not going to feed you, al, i'm sorry. >> i bet you you'll feed natalie. >> that's okay. >> that is fantastic. >> chef ming, thank you so much.

>> so simple. >> happy new year. coming up, hoda tries out her skill on skis, is she ready for vancouver? >> plus are, we ready for "real housewife" stephanie frankel? but first, the local news and weather.

9: 56 is our time. 26 degrees out there, kind of grayish looking and very, very cold right now on this january 4, 2010. i'm joe krebs and in the news for today, jim zorn is out now as redskins head coach. the home fired him early this morning shortly after the skins ended their season with a loss to the chargers out in san diego. they ended their season with a 4 and 12 record. the redskins are expected to make añi formal announcement abt this whole matter today. we'll have a live report from redskins park coming up on news4 midday at 11:00 this morning. now let's get a check on that frigid forecast. >> temperatures still below freezing, we'll only get perhaps near the freezing mark by early afternoon, we're in the 20s now

with windchills in the teens. maybe a few flurries this afternoon and maybe a little light snow thursday into friday, looking at the weekend, looks like it will be cold and dry saturday and sunday. >> it's very slow going on the belt way, left side of your screen on the outer loop, leaving eisenhower avenue, a very large pothole has developed and cars have been damaged. elsewhere the trip to the woodrow wilson bridge is slow going. >> thanks very much, more

captions paid for by nbc-universal television hey, everybody. welcome. it is monday, january 4th, 2010, the first full week of a new year. joining me is this wonderful brit named piers morgan. >> i'm so excited to be back. i was so worried because it's so cold out there, i was worried that you would have a big overcoat on but no, the flesh has come out.

>> no, that's what we do here. kathie lee is spending time with her family. we miss her. hello to kath. >> she left me a note in my dressing room. i mean her dressing room. dear piers, have a great week. if you try on my clothes you'll hear from my attorney and please give hoda a hard time for me. >> no, she did t. >> yes, she did. it's in her handwriting. >> did you have a good holiday? >> i had a wonderful holiday. so many crazy things. i got engaged. i'm not actually married yet, hoda. >> what's her name? >> celia. there she is. i know what you're all thinking. how lucky is she, right? >> i think you can tell a lot about a guy by how he proposes so, mr. piers, how did you do it? >> i thought this is going to take a lot of work. two years ago i met stevie wonder in los angeles. he actually talks directly out of the camera at celia,

compelling her to marry me. that was just the backup. the real thing was her favorite author is an american author named john uptike, and he wrote a very obscure early book named "marry me." it's her birthday, took her to paris for the weekend, she opens the present, it's a first edition of "marry me" by her author. >> did she get it right away? >> there were tears. i've moved greyhounds move slower than that, to be honest. >> did you pull the ring out after that? >> no. i kept it a little different. >> where is the ring? >> that's a later stage. it has to be a bit more precise. >> i love that proposal. >> thank you. >> that's a beautiful way of doing it. there's another beautiful girl i want you to see. >> who is that? >> we have video of her. she's 2 years old and she is so cute. just watch the best video. listen. listen. >> merry christmas. >> ho, ho, ho, merry christmas,

santa. >> you could die. that's my niece, hannah. i just had to show you her. ho, ho, ho, merry christmas. have you ever seen a cuter -- my brother, his wife and hannah were up in vermont and my mom and me stayed in d.c. for some of the holidays. i have an action shot of my mom openoing her present. she looks as astonished as if she were 6 years old. >> that's your mom? >> that's her. >> looks like your sister. she's so young. >> from there, i flew to dubai and was with my sister, hala, and we celebrated right in the -- that's a friend of my sister's too. right in the background of that -- the tallest building. >> which openos today. >> the burj dubai. >> i did a documentary on this place. >> did you? >> i went to the top of this hotel, 800 meters high. it was the scariest thing i've ever done in my life. >> look at piers. >> there i am, see. very nice house. >> that building -- oh, my god!

>> we were on a cage on the outside of the building going up about 40 miles an hour. that guy is sheikh mohammed, ruler of dubai. i said how many people toppled off the edge making this thing? and there was quite a bit of silence because the answer is quite a few. >> it is twice as tall as the empire state building, okay? if you think about trying to take a picture of the empire state building, we were trying to take a picture of that in dubai. you have to get on the ground and point it straight up. >> on the top they get winds of about 150 miles an hour. you feel yourself, the whole building is designed so it moves several feet during the day. >> that's terrifying. >> which is terrifying. >> that is terrifying. >> one big question is bothering me. if you order a pizza and you live at the top, how do you get it to stay hot? he said don't worry, the lifts, elevators as we call them here, they move something like 40 miles an hour. you're in them and it's like -- it's crazy.

>> that building, by the way, is full of -- it has a hotel. armani hotel is on one level, and office buildings and stuff all the way up. do you enjoy dubai? >> it's a very strange place. very few places in the world where you have 200 different religions all living together, for one. every type of human being is in there. and yet it's sort of brand new. everything wasn't there 30 years ago. it was desert. it's a bit like las vegas, isn't it? >> it pops up. you flew in -- when did you fly in, yesterday? >> on saturday from london. >> did you have -- i know now we have all these airport security -- >> security, it took me 13 days to get through. >> tell me what happened. what was your situation? >> typical reaction, isn't it, where something happens, where this guy does something stupid, all right, he's a terrorist. we have to deal with him. the reaction should be life goes on, right? we don't let these people n. instead i'm in a queue of about 1,000 people, grannys and young children and they're all being frisked 100 times. i want to say they're not going

to blow you up. you can relax, right? there's a little granny in a wheelchair. she is not the most wanted terrorist in america. can we please calm down? what a bomber is do iing to geto the terrorist is right. what they're doing to everybody else is an overreaction. >> this is my concern with some of these things. when you walk through, they're doing this -- in some airports they're doing this whole -- like an x-ray scan on you. a lot of people being interviewed says as long as it took us safe. i'm very sensitive to x-rays because of what that gives off, whatever kind of radiation. >> i wouldn't worry about a radiation in your case. best jobs in america, x-raying you in the morning. >> but think if you're the person. how many times do you seriously want to get an x-ray on your body? let's say they go through and make you go through again or you're a frequent traveler? to me, the nigerian guy bought his ticket in cash, didn't check any bags, was a list, his dad called up and complained about him. >> his dad said my son is a nuter and wants to kill

everyone. how did he get on a plane? >> right. focus on that as opposed to we're going to take every mary smith and run them through the ringer. did you see the pictures of new york? >> some bloke wonders in. >> they hadn't found him. they had to rescreen everybody in terminal c, everybody. >> this is where they're getting it wrong. >> go out and go in. >> these pictures show the terrorists they're winning. they don't even have to blow anything up to get this kind of chaos. heathrow, th nigerian guy, of course, had all the bombing stuff around this area of his body. >> right, lower -- >> they're specifically check ing that area. mr. morgan, you are very well packaged in there and i have to say -- ask hoda, it's natural. it has nothing to do with explosives. >> what are you talking about? >> i told you it would be a heck of a week. >> it's only monday. it's only monday. >> is it only monday? >> it's only monday. >> seems like friday already. >> so, we have this thing called a guy's panel that we'll have

coming up on thursday. and we asked our viewers to pick just a regular person to be on our panel with our guys. these were the choices, quinn, jason, todd and daniel. our viewers decided overwhelmingly that they were going to go with cruz. married to his wife jeannine for 20 years, guy number one. he has two kids ages 17 and 8. he has a rock solid marriage, survived the ups and downs and will be on the guy panel. >> great name, quinn cruz. >> what picture are we waiting for? >> i think it might be a wedding picture. not the one you're expecting. >> what is the picture? >> there it is. >> who is this? >> and this is really going to upset you. >> is it you? >> it cost us $300 and it's all over in 15 minutes. that's my kind of wedding. >> not to celia, her rival. >> oh, my god! what is this? what is that? >> i don't comment about my

private life. >> what was going on here? >> i can't tell you. >> is it in a commercial? >> it's a private matter and paris is a very private woman and it would be wrong to engage her privacy. i married paris hilton. why are you surprised? we were making a documentary about vegas and i was trying to make the point that you can go there and do crazy things and everybody's dream can come true. in that point, paris' dreams came true. >> will you be picking the ring out together, piers, or will she be doing it on her own? >> my girlfriend isn't really talking to me since the paris incident. that's obviously put a bit of a dampening on proceedings. we'll go in new york maybe on thursday. >> is it both of you deciding together? >> i'll probably come to a decision and she'll overrule it. >> we like her a lot. all right. coming up next, what happens when a novice hits the ski slope? >> and the novice is hoda. check it out right after this.

>> it's you. you may think you know this lady, hoda. i'm sure you're thinking is there anything she doesn't do? >> i'm going to let you in on a little secret, okay? i have never skied -- i actually tried once, but i have never skied well in my life. since january is national learn to ski month, i decided i was going to give it a go. let me tell you something. it wasn't pretty. how hard could a day of skiing be? snow, mountains, hot tubs, a little shooshing, a lot of apres ski. sounds delightful to everyone, that is, but me. at least i would have some trustworthy instructor. or not.

>> i'm glenn and i guess i'm going to be teaching you how to ski today, huh? >> the godfather of extreme skiing, which made me extremely nervous. >> i've been on skis like once 100 years ago and i'm not great. >> you're not that old. >> i'm not great -- >> i don't mean that -- >> i don't like glenn. okay? or his hair. i kind of feel uncomfortable, like out of control. >> a lot of people are confused and think skiing is a sport. it's a pasttime. >> okay. >> you don't have to be good at pasttimes to enjoy them. >> how do i begin? who do i start with? seriously? i mean, come on. >> all right. before we get going, gang, let's just take a little bit of a run and see how everybody's ability is, okay? >> okay. >> down we go. down the slide, nice and easy. >> all right. doing good. doing good. hang on. we lost one. thought you were with us. i may have to work with you alone. >> look at them.

quit showing off! apparently there are two skiing basics, the pizza pie, which makes you slow down -- >> come around. come around. there you go. >> and the more technical french fry, which makes you go faster or, in my case a one-way ticket to snow city. i feel good now. >> are you all right? >> with me ego and back side bruised, glenn showed me an easier way down. >> i love skiing. i love skiing. pizza pie, check. french fry, check. the fall down, fine, che. there was one last skill to conquer, the chair lift. >> sit down. >> oh, my god. >> no turns, nothing, just straight off. one, two, three.

stand up. >> fall sideways. >> oh, my god! that was the steepest hill we had all day. >> since we skied down the ramp so good, i think we should miss a few steps and go to the top. what do you think? >> are you talking about that? >> yeah, we'll go up there. >> okay. ♪ >> whoo, that was incredible. >> nice job. >> i can't believe it! >> my word. >> you were amazing! how did you learn so fast? >> could you believe that? >> amazing. >> let me tell you, the guy who was my ski double squeezed into that jacket before i even got there. he handed me the coat afterwards. i put my arm in it and it was like totally soaking wet.

ahh! anyway -- >> loved his hair, that instructor. >> do you know what he does? he puts it down on an ironing board, puts jell-o in it to flatten it out. >> really? >> especially when you fell over. >> thanks to glenn plake and ski resort in pennsylvania. january is national learn a snow sport month. ski resorts in 32 states are having special deals throughout the month. you can learn even if you're like me, sort of. >> i've never skied. you're ahead of me. how to make that weight loss solution stick. i'm telling you this time you can do it. >> yeah, right.

we're back with "resolutions today." if you're like most of us, you have vowed to eat healthier and shed some of those pounds. >> registered dietician and co-author of "the ultimate diet

log," here to help you kick off the new year. >> absolutely. >> one lady asked me why does it take me two days to gang ten pounds over the holidays and months to lose it? >> it's so much easier to put it on than take it off. avoid some of these big pitfalls. no matter how much resolve you have, can go wrong very easily. >> let's get started. the thing about restaurants is you usually get a monster portion. >> especially in america. they're gigantic here. >> this isn't really that big, but this burrito typical of any mexican place, packs more than 800 calories, more than you need for the entire day. >> that little thing? >> yeah. >> number one, go naked or do a streaker, which means get rid of that tortla. you save 350 calories right off the bat. ditch the cheese and ask for half the usual rice portion. you just saved 525 calories. your new portion, 325 calorie. >> this is more like what i had

last night. couple calorie or something? >> couple calorie overload. a lot of us with our spouse will have the pizza and dvd. a man would burn 20% more calories at rest because you have more muscle mass. it's not fair to us. many women usually -- >> if you're like me, you're not part of a couple eating this, it's just me. i had a couple of these last night. >> you cannot split a pizza if you're a couple. she definitely has to downsize her pizza, thin crust veggie with light cheese, 150 a slice versus 250 for that. get two different pizzas and eat them together. >> blot the pizza and you save -- >> 120 calories. >> that's the biggest pizza we've ever seen. >> we're talking about portions. costcoo, people go to stores that sell in bulk and think i'm going to save money, get a ton of snacks, cereals, et cetera. >> the costco effect.

if you stockpile your snacks you'll eat 92% more without realizing it. keep a food journal or take a sticky note, put th date you open the package. when you go to recycle it or throw it out, you'll see how quickly you went through it. you might be better off spending extra money on a smaller portion. >> or going more frequently to the store. >> pms cravings. >> what? >> you knew what that was. >> i don't have many of those. >> get used to it. >> she does, you're right. >> carrot cake, carrots aren't going to cut it. use the mini. this is the best trend in decades. bite-sized portions. buy this at any bakery or supermarket. if you have this cheesecake, one little sliver, you still have the whole thing left over. it will be calling your name. >> it's about removing temptation, isn't it? >> absolutely. you have the real thing. don't go with the fat-free, sugar-free junkie stuff. >> i've had friends that will pour detergent on a cake so they don't eat it. you have to do things like that.

>> that's just weird, hoda. >> this is my cup of tea. >> yes, it is. >> the alcohol part. >> it can be an appetite stimulant and lowers your inhibitions. when you get home -- >> hoda. >> thank you. >> you're more likely to raid the cupboards if you've had a couple of cocktails. set yourself up with good old-fashioned popcorn, one tablespoon of sunflower oil and four cups of colonels, this is only 2 cories versus a little handful of potato chips. >> just to clarify, you can have all this and popcorn? >> just saying this could lead to that. you may be ordering that pizza after a couple of these. set yourself up ahead of time. >> cynthia, thank you so much. happy new year. >> thank you. you, too. what you missed while you were cleaning, celebrating, cleaning, partying, cleaning some more. >> all the buzz after your local news.

we are live from redskins park where jim zorn was fired early this morning what. 's next for the team? we have team coverage. the bitter cold, when and if the area will warm up. news4 midday begins at 11:00 a.m. we'll see you then.

we're back o this monday with "today's" buzz. all the information you may have missed as you made your way through the holidays. >> editor in chief of hollywood.com is here to fill us in on all the buzz around the entertainment world. hello, ladies. >> happy new year. >> happy new year. >> we should start with tiger's wife, elin, who everyone finally started. >> it wasn't her. she has a twin sister. >> she does. >> it could be her sister. >> yes. >> we do believe she was there. there were bodyguard there is. however her sister looks very

identical to her and there was a big question about the ring. her sister was wearing a ring. was she wearing a ring? the big news, of course, was there a $300 million birthday and christmas present to elin? >> who is saying that? >> someone close to her is saying that. >> i feel sorry for tiger woods. >> oh, come on. >> i know he's the most hated man in america. let's get it in some perspective. he hasn't killed anyone, has he? his naughty behavior between him and his wife, t this sort of villification of the guy. >> it's says a lot about his character, doesn't it? >> he's not saddam hussein. >> is it okay to have 15 mistresses? >> i'm could the condoning the behavior. >> if we had heard from him or saw him. >> i agree. the wife took the old four iron and gave him the fullback. >> there is that theory going around and that he escaped to

some plastic surgery clinic. in this case -- >> i'm surprised there hasn't been one photo somehow, some way, somewhere. think about all the money riding -- he has built this up into a gold mine, hasn't he? >> oh, yeah. >> because he hasn't been seen. >> absolutely has. he's able to control accounts and access to him. he has been able to do that for a long time. >> he should come out and speak. all these sponsors are dropping which is pathetic. he should come out and say i've been an idiot and the marriage is between him and his wife, but let's get it in some perspective. >> he did have a written statement. charlie sheen was in the news over the holidays as well, accused of threatening his wife with a knife. >> charged with domestic violence. >> what's the real story? >> he was charged with domestic violence. there are police affidavits. he says he only slapped her arms and that he broke her eyeglasses. she says that he grabbed her around the neck and that he held a knife to her throat. >> pinned her to the bed and held a knife to her throat. >> apparently she had asked for a divorce and that threw him into a rage. >> what's the story with the

kids? who gets the kids now? >> she does right now. >> there's an investigation, actually. hollywoodlife.com broke the story that the l.a. children's service is investigating that because of the domestic violence. they're also investigated in aspen and were cleared to keep the children with them in aspen. >> apparently taylor swift is going out with a guy named taylor. how confung is that? >> hotshot. >> if i went out with somebody like piers. actually, i can see how this works. >> it's split. >> i like it. >> if they had gotten married, she would have had the same name. >> who broke up with whom? >> it was a mutually agreed sort of thing. >> we actually heard it was her, that it was actually her. she's older. she just turned 20. he's 17. >> she's an older woman. >> cougar. >> exactly. and the distance. she's on a 50-date world tour, he's filming movies. >> he is adorable.

i'm sorry, so cute. >> max steel. he'll have to bulk up even more. >> how can that happen? >> i don't know. >> that would be like hoda marrying a hoda. how weird. do you, hoda, take hoeda to be would your lawful wedded husband? >> you have a lot of opinions about marriage. >> lots. >> he's about to tie the knot. he's engaged. and we're going to meet her on thursday. >> we'll have to come back. >> yes. >> so "avatar" is a juggernaut. >> $1 billion internationally and nationally combined. >> do you think it will be bigger than "titanic". >> i think so. the president took his kids this weekend. everybody is going to it. vanessa hudgens andzac efron. >> you're kidding? >> the bad guy.

him. >> the really bad guy. >> yeah, really bad guy. >> you are good. >> i want to know how big he is in person. you'll have to tell us. >> who was where on new year's eve? where were the stars? >> rihanna was in abu dahbi. >> i didn't see her. >> lot of celebrities in aspen, big parties in miami. lady gaga's miami at the fountain blue hotel, huge. >> we know where j.lo was. >> what's the ideal with the out fit? >> did you love it? >> no, too many wrinkles. >> what are you talking about? the famous derrier, too many wrinkles. >> this woman had twins. >> the whole thing wrinkles. >> you're talking about the material? >> not her, the out fit. >> i disagree with both of you. she looked great. >> i agree. and i dare you to wear that catsuit. >> just a little tauter, you

know. >> she's 40. she kicked it in the face. >> let me make it clear, she wasn't wrinkled. the catsuit was wrinkling too muchnd it looked bad. how to handle a sticky situation like i just found myself in, right after this.

while it would be nice to have perfect relationships with everyone in our lives, the reality is that is probably not the case. >> apart from hoda and i, obviouslio. since we can always use help communicating now and then real

simple magazine takes a look at novel ways to resolve conflicts. >> r.g. allen, couple and family therapy department. hello, ladies. we need you today. >> rht here. >> let's start with the basics. often i think tempers get in the way. you don't hear the person, right, because you're so hell bent on making your int. >> "real simple" came up with five ways, no matter what kind of conflict you're dealing with, personal or professional, to untangle it. the first is really to determine what you want out of this. think about your ultimate goal. take emotions out of it. >> second gather information. don't assume you know everything the other person is feeling. do a little mission. neutral location, neutral time and be clear with your goals with this person. i want to work with you. >> what if you don't want to

work with her? what if that's the problem? >> pretend. >> that's when you have to take emotion out of it. the fifth thing is to negotiate. be kind. don't make anger part of this. >> obviously communication, that's an old cliche, but communication is the key, if you can keep talking, whether in the workplace or the home, whatever the problem is. it's when you stop talking. >> or how you're talking. >> let's go to one of our viewer e-mails. this is theresa from new jersey. simple. my husband spends too much money. r.g., start us off. what would you do with that conflict? she's a savor, he's a spender. >> that's classic savor/spender couple. you said, piers, communication. but everyone doesn't communicate well. you have to focus on how you're going to communicate, how you're going to commit to this. and then how are you really going to do the research to understand why your husband is spending so much. if he watched this with his parents or something like that, then you have data points, information to which to navigate that.

>> what if you know this is why he does it, but he's still doing it. >> then you have to set out a way in which you communicate what you're really feeling about the spending and what your end goal is, which is the team approach. so it's not about him or her. it's about what you're doing as a team. >> what happens, say, in the workplace, you have a really irritating co-worker -- nothing to do with you, hoda. >> careful you're new here. >> really annoying colleague, what do you have to do if you have to sit with them all day long? >> a list of people. the person probably doesn't realize he's being that loud. give him the benef of the doubt. have a one-on-one statement. use "i" statements, don't make it seem like it's from the whole office even if it is. i feel like my productivity is being compromised because i'm getting distracted. we work so closely together. could you please keep it down. blame it a little bit on the fact that you're close together. >> what if he turns around and says mind your own business? then what do you do?

>> then bring in human resources. there are situations where you've had to do that. >> fire him? >> yeah. separating people a little bit or having people come in and do with it a little more professional way. first do it one on one. >> what about family, though? workplace, you can always go home and bleep to your wife about what went on. whether it's your wife, your mother, someone that you really love and it's an ongoing thing, what do you do then? >> you pick and choose your friends but not your family. you have to deal with your family. there are cases where your family is present you have to figure out what's the real issue and how you're going to resolve this matter without hurting people's feelings. >> jen in phoenix says i get furious with my mother's perfectionist attitude toward everything. it must be done her way. she will reorganize everything i own if i would let her, even her own bedroom. when you have someone up in your grill, what do you do? >> mom's trying to help. you haveo help her with the

boundaries and reflect what's going on. what are you so angry about? then negotiate with mom how it is that she can still be helpful to you but not just overarching the ippropriate boundaries. >> don't just say stay out of my room? that's enough. >> no, you can't say that. you have to remember what matters most. nothing trumps the healthy relationship. maintain the relationship while you maintain appropriate boundaries. >> i love you, but -- >> tough love. >> ladies, sarah, r.g., thank you very much for the advice. we appreciate it. new york housewife bethany -- >> do you know her? >> no, i don't know her. this is the skinny girl, right? >> i'm not very much the skinny boy. with her favorite foods made sk skinny right after this. >> she's pregnant. >> no.

we're in "today's" kitchen, gettin' saucy with new york housewife bethany frankel. >> you made that new year's resolution to eat healthy. what better place to start than right here in the kitchen.

>> look at bethany, by the way. can you turn sideways for our viewers? >> yes. >> hello! you are moving right along with this pregnancy. >> and how do you like these apples? >> absolutely love those apples. >> it was a two-man job getting me in this dress. >> congratulations, though. >> thank you. >> how far along are you? >> everything is in weeks like 19 weeks. why doesn't someone ask your age i'm 1900 weeks old. a little bit snappy. he's excited that it will be over at some point. i've been a little on the verge. >> that does happen. when everyone is -- look at jason. so adorable, the two of you. while you were pregnant, you posed for peta. you've seen the big bethany posters. >> that was me. >> wait. you were pregnant during this picture? >> i was like nine seconds pregnant. i willlways say. i was nine months pregnant there, yes. >> there was some controversy

over the doctoring of thephoto. >> which one is doctored? >> the one on the right. >> really? >> yes. of course it's a little air brushed but it's as if i'm air brushing it myself. yes, i was sitting around air brushing my own photo. >> that is the least different air brushing photo i've ever seen. >> thank you. >> piers has a picture -- pop it up. that was his burger king ad. >> medallion. >> i know. >> burt reynolds. >> best-selling author. last book was a huge success. now you have another one out. it is called -- >> "the skinny girl dish." >> what is it about? >> everyone has resolutions. i don't believe in sacrificing flavor. everyone is doing fat free. i don't believe in it. none of my recipes are fat free. this is the fatting artichoke spinh dip, low-fat sour cream, never fat free, high-flavored cheeseses and spices and it's like the one at houston's.

>> is it? >> it's delicious. >> hold on. don't crack the chip. hold on. here, piers. let's taste it. does it taste like -- what do you think, piers? >> it's healthy, loaded with vegetables and artichokes. >> piers tells the truth. >> i know. >> i'm judging as if i would on "america as got talent." that is through to the next round. >> skinny girl dish is tops. i don't like to sacrifice flavor. make your own. it has to have bright colors and i've taken turkey bacon instead of regular bacon, crab meat, white meat chicken, egg whites, high-flavor cheeses. what i like to do is make a base and then i make it like a rainbow. i'll take -- you can do. make your own. i just make little rows of what i like. >> i can choose my own? >> that is arugula. >> i don't like that. >> perfect. uh-uh have to get creative with

your ingredients. people at home only use plain lettuce. >> what's the mistake most people make in this kind of situation? >> not having a lot of flavor and not having a lot of fiber. here are hearts of palm, probably $3 in a can. they're just exotic and different. same thing. avocado is good fat. see all the different pretty colors like when you're at a spa? >> yes. >> how many different calories? >> i would say at the end of the day that little thing is probably going to be 120 calories. i don't believe in calories. >> the dressing is the danger zone? >> exactly. you always need ranch on a cobb. don't be lemon and olive oil. it's not going to work. low-fat ranch and mix it with a low-fat vinaigrette so you can driz sbl not need so much. if you're a french person -- not if you're a french person but -- >> you're making quite boring food tasty so you don't crave the fast food stuff? >> no.

this week particularly, everyone is eating shoe lace chicken that is like boring. >> 30 seconds. should we drink? >> we should drink cocktails. i laughed, i cried. it was better than cats. okay, perfect. this is -- i can't -- i miss you. i miss you guys. cocktails. in order to skinny-fy your cocktails, cosmopolitan, do a little sweet element, splash of the cranberry, splash of the roses, but not vodka and cranberry. >> how many calories is this then? >> probably 120. >> you can have a few of those. >> clear liquor always. clear rum, club soda and a splash of the coke. just getting one little hint. >> encouraging us to drink. most diet people say give up alcohol. >> no, because you have to live. >> bethany, we have to go. good luck with this book. she wants another best seller. >> and a healthy baby. >> we'll

now it's time to check in with miss sarah. hello, dear. >> hi, guys. we have people talking about the cat suit. margie agreed with you, it was a little too much but it really depends who is in it. >> she has one of the great bodies. that's my point. even she doesn't look great in it. >> look at that. >> now that works, you see. whoever that handsome hunk is, that really works, right, hoda? who was that? >> put it back up. >> not even wrinkly. >> that is somebody, right? >> whoa! thank you, sarah bob harper is with us from "t"the biggest lose loser"." plus "avatar," highest grossing movies of all time.